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A HISTORY OF ROME 



BY 



PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS 

w 

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE 

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF 

GREECE," "ROME: ITS RISE AND FALL," 

AND "A GENERAL HISTORY" 



SECOND REVISED EDITION 



GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK ■ CHICAGO ■ LONDON 
ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO 



COPYRIGHT, 1904, 1917, BY PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS 

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



317-2 



31G[Z10 




APR 19J9I7 



GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



CI.A460374 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND REVISED 

EDITION 

The present volume comprises the chapters on Rome and the 
Romano-German period of the second revised edition of my Ancient 
History, with only slight changes in the system of cross references to 
render the book independent of the oriental and Greek chapters. 

P. V. N. M. 
College Hill, Cincinnati 



CONTENTS 

PART I. ROME 
First Period — Rome as a Kingdom 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Italy and its Early Inhabitants i 

II. Rome as a Kingdom 6 

I. The Beginnings of Rome ...... .... 6 

II. Society and Government 8 

III. Religion 12 

IV. Rome under the Kings. (Legendary Date 753-509 b. c.) . 17 
Legends of Early Rome 21 

Second Period — Rome as a Republic. (509-31 b.c.) 

III. The Early Republic; Plebeians Secure Equality 

with the Patricians. (509-367 b.c.) 24 

IV. The Conquest and Unification of Italy. (367-264 b.c.) 37 

V. Expansion of Rome beyond the Peninsula .... 46 

I. The First Punic War. (264-241 B.C.) 46 

II. Rome and Carthage between the First and the Second 

Punic War. (241-2 iS B.C.) 52 

III. The Second Punic War. (218-201 B.C.) 56 

IV. Events between the Second and the Third Punic War. 

(201-146 B.C.) , 61 

V. The Third Punic War. (149-146 b.c.) 67 

VI. The Last Century of the Republic: the Period of 

Revolution. (133-31 b.c.) 72 

Third Period — Rome as an Empire. (31 B.c-476 a.d.) 

/ The Principate. (31 B.C. -2 8 4 a.d.) 

VII. The Establishment of the Empire and the Princi- 
pate of Augustus Cesar. (31 b. c-14 a.d.) . . . 106 

VIII. From Tiberius to the Accession of Diocletian (14- 

284 a.d.) I [6 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

II The Absolute Monarchy 

CHAPTER pAGE 

IX. The Reigns of Diocletian and Constantine the 

Great 139 

I. The Reign of Diocletian. (284-305 a. d.) , ... 139 

II. Reign of Constantine the Great. (306-337 a. d.) . . . 144 

X. The Break-up of the Empire in the West. (376- 

47'6 a. d.) 150 

XI. Architecture, Literature, Law, and Social Life 

among the Romans 167 

I. Architecture and Engineering . . . .' 167 

II. Literature and Law 1 74 

III. Social Life 182 

PART II. THE ROMANO-GERMAN OR TRANSITION AGE 

(476-800 A.D.) 

XII. The Barbarian Kingdoms T91 

XIII. The Church and its Institutions 196 

I. The Conversion of the Barbarians 196 

II. The Rise of Monasticism .199 

III. The Rise of the Papacy 202 

XIV. The Fusion of Latin and Teuton . 207 

XV. The Roman Empire in the East 212 

XVI. The Rise of Islam . . - . . . . 215 

XVII. Charlemagne and the Restoration of the Empire 

in the West .*....- 222 

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . 227 

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 233 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

(After photographs, and from cuts taken from Baumeister's Denkmaeler des klassi- 
sche7t Altertians, Oscar Jaeger's Weltgcsdiichte, Schreiber's Atlas of Classical A7ttiquities, 
and other reliable sources.) 

FIGURE PAGE 

i. An Etruscan Chariot 3 

2. Wall Painting of an Etruscan Banquet 4 

3. Head of Janus 14 

4. Divining by Means of the Appearance of the Entrails of a Sacri- 

ficial Victim 15 

5. The Cloaca Maxima 18 

6. Roman Soldier 19 

7. Lictors with Fasces 25 

. 8. The Appian Way 41 

9. Grotto of Posilipo 44 

ro. Prow of a Roman Warship 48 

n. The Triumphal Column of Duilius 49 

12. Augur's Birds 51 

13. Hannibal 55 

14. Publius Cornelius Scipio (Africanus) 60 

15. Coin of the Italian Confederacy 80 

16. Mithradates the. Great 84 

17. Marius (?) 85 

18. Roman Trading Vessel 89 

19. Pompey the Great 91 

20. Julius Caesar . . 1 98 

21. Octavian (Octavius) as a Youth 101 

22. Cicero 102 

23. Augustus 107 

24. Maecenas in 

25. Vespasian 120 

26. "Judaea Capta" 121 

27. Triumphal Procession from the Arch of Titus . 121 

28. A Street in Pompeii 122 

29. House of the Vetti at Pompeii 123 

30. Trajan "124 

31. Bridge over the Danube, Built by Trajan 125 

32. Trajan's Column 126 

33. The Hadrian Wall 128 

vii 



viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE PAGE 

34. Hadrian 129 

35. Siege of a City 130 

36. Roman Aqueduct and Bridge near Nimes, France 133 

3J. Commodus Represented as the Roman Hercules 134 

38. Caracalla 135 

39. Triumph of Sapor over Valerian 137 

40. Christ as the Good Shepherd 143 

41. The Labarum 144 

42. Arch of Constantine at Rome, as it Appears To-day 145 

43. Germans Crossing the Rhine .- 158 

44. The Pantheon, at Rome 167 

45. The Roman Forum in 1885 168 

46. The Circus Maximus 169 

47. The Colosseum 170 

48. A Roman Milestone 171 

49. The Claudian Aqueduct ........ 172 

50. The Medicinal Spring of Umeri 173 

51. Mausoleum of Hadrian, at Rome 174 

52. Seneca 179 

53. Gladiators 185 

54. Semicircular Dining-couch 186 

55. Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna 192 

56. Ruins of the Celebrated Monastery of Iona 199 

57. A Monk Copyist 201 

58. Trial by Combat 210 

59. The Kaaba at Mecca 216 



LIST OF MAPS 

Colored Maps 

(After Kiepert, Schrader, Droysen, Spruner-Sieglin, and Freeman. . The Freeman 

charts have been so modified by omissions and additions that most of them as they 
here appear are virtually new maps.) 

PAGE 

Italy before the Growth of the Roman Power 2 

The Mediterranean Lands at the beginning of the Second Punic War, 

218 b.c , 54 

The Roman Dominions at the End of the Mithradatic War, 64 B.C. . . 90 

The Roman Empire at the Death of Augustus, 14 a. d no 

The Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent (under Trajan, 98-117 a.d.) . 126 

The Roman Empire Divided into Prefectures 142 

Map showing Barbarian Inroads on the Fall of the Roman Empire 

(movements shown down to 477 a.d.) 150 

Europe in the Reign of Theodoric, about 500 a.d 190 

Greatest Extent of the Saracen Dominions, about 750 a.d 218 

Europe in the Time of Charles the Great, 814 a.d 222 

Sketch Maps 

The Mountain System of Italy . 2 

The Seven Hills of Rome 7 

The Roman Domain and the Latin Confederacy in the Time of the 

Early Republic, about 450 B.c 28 

The Route of Hannibal 56 

The Roman Empire under Justinian 213 



A HISTORY OF ROME 

PART I 
FIRST PERIOD — ROME AS A KINGDOM 

CHAPTER I 

ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 

1. Divisions of the Italian Peninsula. The Italian peninsula 
is generally conceived as consisting of three sections — Northern, 
Central, and Southern Italy. The first comprises the great basin of 
the river Po (Padus), lying between the Alps and the Apennines. 
In ancient times this part of Italy included three districts, namely, 
Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, and Venetia. Liguria embraced the south- 
western and Venetia the northeastern part of Northern Italy. Gallia 
Cisalpina lay between these two districts, occupying the finest portion 
of the valley of the Po. It received its name, which means " Gaul on 
this [the Italian] side of the Alps," from the Gallic tribes that about 
the fifth century before our era found their way over the mountains 
and settled upon these rich lands. 

The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Campania, 
facing the Western or Tyrrhenian Sea ; Umbria and Picenum, looking 
out over the Eastern or Adriatic Sea ; and Samnium and the coun- 
try of the Sabines, occupying the rough mountain districts of the 
Apennines. 

Southern Italy comprised the ancient districts of Apulia, Lucania, 
Calabria, and Bruttium. Calabria 1 formed the "heel," and Bruttium 

1 During the Middle Ages this name was transferred to the toe of the peninsula, and 
this forms the Calabria of to-day. 

I 



ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 



[§2 



the " toe," of the bootlike peninsula. The coast region of Southern 
Italy, as we have already learned, was called Magna Graecia, or 
" Great Greece," on account of the number and importance of the 
Greek cities that during the period of Hellenic supremacy were 
established on these shores. 

The large island of Sicily, lying just off the mainland on the 
south, may be regarded simply as a detached fragment of Italy, so 
intimately has its history been connected with that of the peninsula. 



S^lg - -l^S 



the Mountain 
system of italy 




1[0 Longitude 1|2 East from Vi Greenwich ^§gB,Eggy iuM 



2. Mountains, Rivers, and Harbors. Italy, like the other two 
peninsulas of Southern Europe, — Greece and Spain, — has a high 
mountain barrier, the Alps, along its northern frontier. Correspond- 
ing to the Pindus range in Greece, the Apennines run as a great cen- 
tral ridge through the peninsula. Eastward of the ancient Latium 
they spread out into broad uplands, which in early times nourished 
a race of hardy mountaineers, who incessantly harried the territories 
of the more civilized lowlanders of Latium and Campania. Thus 
the physical conformation of this part of the peninsula shaped large 



§3] 



EARLY INHABITANTS OF ITALY 



sections of Roman history, just as in the case of Scotland the physi- 
cal contrast between the north and the south was reflected . for 
centuries in the antagonisms of Highlanders and Lowlanders. 

Italy has only one really great river, the Po, which drains the 
large northern plain, already mentioned, lying between the Alps 
and the Apennines. The streams running down the eastern slope 
of the Apennines are short and of little volume. Among the rivers 
draining the western slopes of the 
Apennines, the one possessing 
the greatest historic interest is 
the Tiber, on the banks of which 
Rome arose. North of this stream 
is the Arno (Amus), which watered 
a part of the old Etruria, and south 
of it, the Liris, one of the chief 
rivers of Campania. 

The finest Italian harbors, of 
which that of Naples is the most 
celebrated, are on the western 
coast. The eastern coast is precipi- 
tous, with few good havens. Italy 
thus faces the west. What makes 
it important for us to notice this 
circumstance is the fact that Greece 
faces the east, and that thus these 
two peninsulas, as the historian 

Mommsen expresses it, turn their backs to each other. This brought 
it about that Rome and the cities of Greece had almost no dealings 
with one another for many centuries. 

3. Early Inhabitants of Italy: the Etruscans, the Greeks, and 
the Italians. There were in early historic times three chief races in 
Italy — the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Italians. They had all, save 
the Greeks, found their way into the peninsula in prehistoric times. 

1 This interesting memorial of Etruscan art was acquired by the Metropolitan 
Museum of New York City at a cost of #48,000. It was found in an ancient Etruscan 
cemetery (1901). Almost every part of the chariot, including the wheels, was sheathed 
in figured bronze. The relic probably dates from the seventh century B.C. 




Fig. 1. An Etruscan Chariot 1 
(From a photograph) 



4 ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS [§ 3 

The Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and seafaring people of uncer- 
tain race and origin, dwelt in Etruria, now called Tuscany after them. 1 
They seem to have come into Italy from the east by way of the sea. 
Before the rise of the Roman people they were the leading race in the 
peninsula. Certain elements in their culture lead us to believe that they 
had learned much from the cities of Magna Grsecia. The Etruscans 
in their turn became the teachers of the early Romans and imparted 
to them certain elements of civilization, including military usages, 
hints in the art of building, and various religious ideas and rites. 



Fig. 2. Wall Painting of an Etruscan Banquet 

From an Etruscan tomb of the fifth century b. c. This cut illustrates, among other things, 
the state of art among the Etruscans at that early date. Banqueting scenes are favorite 
representations on Etruscan tombs, sarcophagi, and funeral urns. The participators 
"were represented in the height of social enjoyment to symbolize the bliss on which 
their spirits had entered" (Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria) 

With the Greek cities in Southern Italy and in Sicily we have 
already formed an acquaintance. Through the medium of these 
cultured communities the Romans were taught the use of letters 
and given valuable suggestions in matters of law and constitutional 
government. 

The Italians, peoples of Indo-European speech, embraced many 
tribes or communities (Latins, Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, etc.) 
that occupied nearly all Central and a considerable part of Southern 
Italy. They were kin to the Greeks and brought with them into the 
peninsula, where they probably mixed with an aboriginal population, 

1 In early times they had settlements in Northern Italy and in Campania. 



§3] EARLY INHABITANTS OF ITALY 5 

those customs, manners, beliefs, and institutions that formed the 
common possession of the Indo-European peoples. Their life was 
for the most part that of shepherds and farmers. 

The most important of the Italian peoples were the Latins, who 
dwelt in Latium ; and the most important of the Latins were the 
Romans. Concerning the beginnings of early Rome, its society, gov- 
ernment, and religion, and the fortunes of the city under its later 
kings, we shall give a brief account in the next chapter. 

Selections from the Sources. Munro's Source Book of Roman History, 
pp. 2-4. The teacher will find this admirable collection of extracts from the 
sources an invaluable aid in imparting a sense of life and reality to the story 
of ancient Rome. 

References (Modern). Mommsen, vol. i, chaps, i, ii. Freeman, Historical 
Geography of Europe, vol. i (text), pp. 7-9, 43-49.. Tozer, Classical Geogi'aphy, 
chaps, ix, x. Merivale, vol. iv, pp. 414-416 (for some interesting observa- 
tions on the evidence afforded by ancient geographical names of the wooded 
character of the districts about Rome in early times). How and Leigh, 
History of Rome, chaps, i, ii. Shuckburgh, History of Rome, chaps, ii, iii. 
Allcroft and Masom, Tutorial History of Rome, pp. 1-18. Dennis, The 
Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i, introduction (the author probably exag- 
gerates the debt which the early civilization of Rome owed to the preceding 
culture of Etruria). Leland, Etrtt scan- Roman Remains. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Geographical conditions tending to make the 
history of Italy different from that of Greece : Freeman, Historical Geography 
of Europe, vol. i (text), pp. 7-9. 2. Explain the historian Freeman's statement 
that " the course of all history has been determined by the geological fact that 
certain hills by the Tiber were lower and nearer together than the other hills 
of Latium." 3. "While the Grecian peninsula is turned towards the east, the 
Italian is turned towards the west" (Mommsen); show the influence of this 
geographical fact on the history of each land. 



"- 5 

if 
8 




CHAPTER II 



ROME AS A KINGDOM 



I. THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME 



4. Latium and the Latin League. At the opening of the historic 
period, Latium, the " flat country," as the name probably signifies, 
lying south of the lower course of the Tiber, was dotted with strongly 
fortified hill-towns or petty city-states, like those of early Greece. 
In some cases at least a great part of the families forming one of 
these little hill-states lived in hamlets scattered over the territory of 
the city, in order that they might be near the fields they ploughed 
or the common pastures upon which they herded their flocks. The 
walled town on the hill served as a common refuge for the villagers 
in times of danger. It was also here that they held their markets 
and religious festivals. According to tradition there were in all 
Latium in prehistoric times thirty of these hill-towns. These had 
formed an alliance among themselves known as the Latin League. 

5. Early Rome. Among these hill-towns was one named Rome, 
situated on a cluster of low hills on the left bank of the Tiber, about 
fifteen miles from the sea. At the dawn of history the leadership 
in the Latin League was held by this city. 1 Rome, which was 

1 In earlier times the leadership was held by Alba Longa, a city on the isolated 
Alban Mount. 

6 



§6] 



INFLUENCE OF COMMERCE 



7 



destined to play such a great role in history, had been formed by the 
union in prehistoric times of three or more settlements, the dwell- 
ings of which were upon the slopes or at the foot of the hills just 
mentioned. Pressed probably by common enemies, they had come 
to unite on equal terms to form a single city-state, and had learned 
to call themselves by the same name — Romans. The early union 
of these little communities was a matter of great moment in the 
history of Rome. Con- 
tributing to make her 
first in numbers and 
strength among all the 
Latin city-states, it helped 
to lay the basis of her 
greatness and foreshad- 
owed her marvelous po- 
litical fortunes. 

6. Influence of Com- 
merce upon the Growth 
of Early Rome. Besides 
the early happy union of 
the several hill-villages, 
other circumstances with- 
out doubt contributed to 
the early and rapid 
growth of Rome. Among 
these a prominent place 

must be given to the advantages in the way of trade and commerce 
afforded by its fortunate situation upon the Tiber. Its distance from 
the sea protected it against the depredations of the pirates who in 
early times swarmed in the Mediterranean and swept away the cattle 
and the crops from the fields of the coast settlements, while its 
location on the chief stream of Central Italy naturally made it the 
center of the lucrative trade of a wide reach of inland territory 
bordering upon the Tiber and its tributaries. Furthermore, this posi- 
tion upon a navigable river and not too far away from the sea gave 
it control of an important sea-borne traffic. 




The Seven Hills of Rome 

" The course of all history [has] been determined by 

the geological fact that certain hills by the Tiber were 

lower and nearer together than the other hills of 

Latium." — Freeman 



8 ROME AS A KINGDOM [§ 7 

II. SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT 

7. The Roman Family ; the Worship of Ancestors. At the 

base of Roman society and forming its smallest unit was the 
family. This was a very different group from that which among 
us bears the same name. The typical Roman family consisted of 
the father (paterfamilias) and mother, the sons together with their 
wives and sons, and the unmarried daughters. When a daughter 
married she became a member of the family to which her husband 
belonged. 

The most important feature or element of this family group was 
the unrestrained authority (j>otestas) of the father. In early times his 
power over every member of the family was in law absolute, though 
custom required that in cases involving severe punishment he should 
seek the advice of a council of near relatives. He could for miscon- 
duct sell a son of mature years into slavery or even put him to death 
(see sect. •$•$). 

The father was the high priest of the family, for the family had 
a common worship. This was the cult of domestic divinities and the 
spirits of ancestors. These latter were believed to linger near the 
old hearth. If provided with frequent offerings of meat and drink, 
they would, it was thought, watch over the living members of the 
family and aid and prosper them in their daily work and in all 
their undertakings. If they were neglected, however, these spirits 
became restless and suffered pain, and in their anger would bring 
trouble in some form upon their undutiful kinsmen. 

It was particularly this worship of ancestors that made the Roman 
family so exclusive, and that caused it to close its doors against 
all strangers ; for the spirits of its dead members could be served 
only by their own kith and kin. By a certain religious ceremony, 
however, a stranger could be adopted into a family, and thus could 
acquire the same rights as its members by birth or by marriage to 
participate in its worship and festivals. 

When the father died the sons became free, and each in his 
own household now came to exercise the full authority that the 
father had held. 



§8] THE FAMILY IN ROMAN HISTORY 9 

8. The Place of the Family in Roman History. It would be 
difficult to overestimate the influence of the family upon the history 
and destiny of Rome. It was the cradle of at least some of those 
splendid virtues of the early Romans that contributed so much to 
the strength and greatness of Rome, and that helped to give her 
the dominion of the world. It was in the atmosphere of the family 
that were nourished in the Roman youth the virtues of obedience, 
of deference to authority, and of submission to law and custom. 
When the youth became a citizen, obedience to magistrates and 
respect for law were with him an instinct and indeed almost a 
religion. And, on the other hand, the exercise of the parental 
authority in the family taught the Roman how to command as well 
as how to obey — how to exercise authority with wisdom, moderation, 
and justice. 

9. Dependents of the Family : Clients and Slaves. "Besides those 
members constituting the family proper there were attached to it 
usually a number of dependents. These were the clients and slaves. 
The client was a person standing in a semiservile relation to the 
head of the family, who was called his patron. The class of clients 
was probably made up largely of homeless refugees or strangers 
from other cities, or of freed slaves dwelling in their former master's 
house. They were free to engage in business at Rome and to ac- 
cumulate property, though whatever they gathered was legally the 
property of the patron. 

The duty of the patron was, in general, to look after the interests 
of his client, especially to represent him before the legal tribunals. 
The duty of the client, on the other hand, was faithfulness to his 
patron, and the making of contributions of money to aid him in 
meeting unusual expenses. 

The slaves constituted merely a part of the family property. 
There were only a few slaves in the early Roman family, and these 
were held for service chiefly within the home and not in the fields. 
They relieved the mother and daughters of the coarser work of the 
household. It was not until later times, when luxury crept into 
Rome, that the number of domestic slaves became excessively 
great (sect. 200). 



10 ROME AS A KINGDOM [§10 

10. The Clan, the Curia, the Tribe, and the City. Above the 
family stood the clan or gens. This was probably in the earliest 
times simply the expanded family, the members of which had out- 
grown the remembrance of their exact relationship. Yet they all 
believed themselves to have had a common ancestor and called 
themselves by his name, as the Fabii, the Claudii, the Julii, and so 
on. The gens, like the family, had a common altar. 

The next largest group or division of the community was the 
curia, which, like the Greek phratry, was a " brotherhood," the 
members of which were united by the ties of religion and blood. 
This was the most important political division of the people in early 
Rome. Levies for the army were made by curiae, and voting in 
the primitive assembly of the people, as we shall explain pres- 
ently, was done by these same bodies. There were thirty curiae in 
primitive Rome. 

Above the curiae was the tribe, the largest subdivision of the 
community. In early Rome there were three tribes, each com- 
prising ten curiae. 

These several groups made up the community of early Rome. 
This city, like the cities of ancient Greece, was a city-state — that 
is, an independent sovereign body like a modern nation. As such it 
possessed a constitution and government, concerning which we will 
next give a short account. 

11. The King and the Senate. At the head of the early Roman 
state stood a king, the father of his people, holding essentially the 
same relation to thern that the father of a family held to his house- 
hold. He was at once ruler of the nation, commander of the army, 
and judge and high priest of his people. He was preceded by serv- 
ants called lictors, each bearing a bundle of rods (the fasces) with 
an ax bound therein, the symbol of his power to punish by flogging 
and by putting to death. 

Next to the king stood the Senate, a body composed of the 
" fathers," or heads of the ancient clans of the community. Two 
important functions of the Senate were to give counsel to the 
king, and to cast the decisive vote on all measures passed by the 
assembly of citizens. 



§ 12] THE POPULAR ASSEMBLY . 1 1 

12. The Popular Assembly. The popular assembly (comitia cu- 

riatd) comprised all the freemen of Rome. The manner of taking 
a vote in this assembly should be noted, for the usage here was 
followed in all the later popular assemblies of the republican period. 
The voting was not by individuals but by curiae ; that is, each curia 
had one vote, and the measure before the body was carried or lost 
according as a majority of the curiae voted for or against it. 

It should be further noted that this assembly was not a representa- 
tive body, like a modern legislature, but a primary assembly, that is, 
a meeting like a New England town meeting. All of the later assem- 
blies at Rome were like this primitive assembly. The Romans never 
learned, or at least never employed, the principle of representation, 
without which device government by the people in the great states 
of the present day would be impossible. How important the bearing 
of this was upon the political fortunes of Rome we shall learn later. 

13. The Rights of Roman Citizenship. The rights of the Roman 
citizen were divided into private rights and public rights. The chief 
private rights were two, namely, the right of trade {jus commercii) 
and the right of marriage (Jus conttubii). The right of trade or com- 
merce was the right to acquire, to hold, and to bequeath property 
(both personal and landed) according to the forms of the Roman 
law. This in the ancient city was an important right and privilege. 1 
The right of marriage was the " right of contracting a full and reli- 
gious marriage." Such a marriage could take place in early Rome 
only between patricians, or persons of noble birth. 

The three chief public or political rights of the Roman citizen 
were the right of voting in the public assemblies {jus sujf?'agii), the 
right to hold office {jus honorurn), and the right of appeal from the 
decision of a magistrate to the people {jus provocationis). 

These rights taken together constituted the most highly valued 
rights and prerogatives of the Roman citizen. What we should 
particularly notice is that the Romans adopted the practice of 
bestowing these rights in installments, so to speak. For instance, 
the inhabitants of one vanquished city would be given a part of 

1 In some modern states aliens are not allowed to acquire landed property ; in Roman 
terms there is withheld from them a part of the jus commercii. 



12 ROME AS A KINGDOM [§14 

the private rights of citizenship, those of another perhaps all of 
this class of rights, while upon the inhabitants of a third place would 
be bestowed all the rights, both private and public. This usage 
created many different classes of citizens in the Roman state ; and 
this, as will appear later, was one of the most important matters 
connected with the internal history of Rome. 

14. Patricians and Plebeians. In early Rome there were two 
classes or orders known as patricians and plebeians} The patricians 
formed the hereditary nobility of the state. They alone possessed all 
the rights of citizenship as enumerated in the preceding section. Some 
of the private rights, as we shall see directly, they shared with the 
plebeians, but the chief political rights they jealously guarded as the 
sacred patrimony of their own order. 

The plebeians (from plebs, " the multitude ") were the humbler mem- 
bers of the community. Some of this class-were shopkeepers, artisans, 
and manual laborers living in Rome ; but the larger number were 
small landowners living outside the city in scattered hamlets, and 
tilling with their own hands their little farms of a few acres in extent. 

From what has already been said of them, it will be seen that these 
plebeians possessed at least one of the most important rights of Roman 
citizenship, namely, the private right of engaging in trade. But from 
most of the other rights and privileges of the full citizen they were 
wholly shut out. They could not contract a legal marriage with one 
of the patrician order. They could not hold office or appeal from 
the decision of a magistrate. A large part of the early history of 
Rome as a republic is made up of the struggles of these plebeians 
to better their economic condition and to secure for themselves social 
and political equality with the patricians. 

III. RELIGION 

15. The Place of Religion in Roman History. In Rome, as in 
the ancient cities of Greece, religion, aside from the domestic and 
local cults, was an affair of the state. The magistrates of the city 

1 There have been many theories as to the origin of this division in the population 
of primitive Rome, but nothing certain is known about it. It is possible that the patri- 
cians were the offspring of the invading Indo-Europeans (sect. 3), and the plebeians the 
descendants of the subjected non-Aryan people. See Frank, Roman Imperialism, p. 12. 



§16] LEGAL CHARACTER OF THE RELIGION 13 

possessed a sort of sacerdotal or priestly character ; and since almost 
every official act was connected in some way with the rites of the 
temple or the sacrifices of the altar, it happens that the political 
history of the Romans is closely interwoven with their religion. 

16. The Practical and Legal Character of the Religion. The 
Roman thought of the gods as watchful of the conduct of their 
worshipers, and as interested in their affairs. Hence the Roman 
was in his way very religious, and exceedingly scrupulous in render- 
ing to the divinities the worship due them. He did not, however, 
serve his gods for naught ; he expected from them a full equivalent 
for the sacrificial victims that he offered them, for the incense that 
he burned upon their altars, for the gifts he hung up in their temples, 
and for the costly games and spectacles he provided for their enter- 
tainment in the circus and the amphitheater. 

And the gods, on their part, were ready to meet this expectation. 
They gave counsel and help to their faithful followers, and secured 
them good harvests and a successful issue of their undertakings. On 
the other hand, neglect angered the gods and caused them to bring 
upon their unfaithful worshipers all kinds of troubles and calamities 
— dissensions within the state, defeat of their armies in the field, 
drought, fire and flood, pestilence and famine. 

Another noteworthy feature of the Roman religion was its legal 
character ; for the Roman religion was a sort of contract between 
the gods and their worshipers. If the worshipers performed their 
part of this contract, then the gods were bound to fulfill theirs. 

But the Roman was ever ready to take advantage of a flaw in a 
contract and to overreach in a bargain, and making his gods like 
unto himself, he imagined that they would act in a like manner. 
Hence the anxious care with which he performed all the prescribed 
religious rites, in order to insure that there should be no flaw in the 
proceedings which might be taken advantage of by the gods. Plutarch 
says that sometimes a sacrifice would be repeated as many as thirty 
times, because each time there was some little oversight or mistake. 

17. The Chief Roman Deities. At the head of the Roman 
pantheon stood Jupiter, identical in all essential attributes with 
the Hellenic Zeus. He was the special protector of the Roman 



14 



ROME AS A KINGDOM 



[§18 



people. To him, together with Juno his wife, and Minerva goddess 
of wisdom, was consecrated a magnificent temple upon the summit 
of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the forum and the city. 

Mars, the god of war, was the favorite deity and the fabled father 
of the Roman race, who were fond of calling themselves the " Chil- 
dren of Mars." They proved themselves worthy offspring of the 
war-god. Martial games and festivals were celebrated in his honor 
during the first month of the Roman year — the month which bore, 

and still bears, in his honor, the name 
of March. 

Janus was a double-faced deity to 
whom the month of January was 
sacred, as were also all gates and 
doors. The gates of his temple were 
always kept open in time of war and 
shut in time of peace. 

The fire upon the household hearth 

was regarded as the symbol of the 

goddess Vesta. Her worship was a 

favorite one with the Romans. The 

nation, too, as a single great family, 

had a common national hearth in 

the temple of Vesta, where the sacred fires were kept burning 

from generation to generation by six virgins, daughters of the 

Roman state. 

18. Oracles and Divination. The Romans, like the Greeks, 
thought that the will of the gods was communicated to men by 
means of oracles, and by strange sights, unusual events, or singular 
coincidences. There were no true oracles at Rome. The Romans, 
therefore, often had recourse to those of the Greeks. Particularly 
in great emergencies did they seek advice from the celebrated 
oracle of Apollo at Delphi. From Etruria was introduced the art 
of the haruspices, or soothsayers, which consisted in discovering the 
will of the gods by the appearance of the inward parts of victims 
slain for the sacrifices. 1 

1 This art came originally from Babylonia, probably by way of Asia Minor. 




Fig. 3. Head of Janus. 
a Roman coin) 



(From 



§19] 



THE SACRED COLLEGES 



15 




19. The Sacred Colleges. The four chief sacred colleges or 
societies were the Keepers of the Sibylline Books, the College of 
Augurs, the College of Pontiffs, and the College of the Heralds. 

The Sibylline Books were volumes written in Greek, the origin 
of which was lost in fable. They were kept in a stone chest in a 
vault beneath the Capitoline temple, and special custodians were 
appointed to take charge of them and interpret them. The books 
were consulted only in times of extreme danger (sect. 58). 

The duty of the 
members of the Col- 
lege of Augurs was to 
interpret the omens, 
or auspices, — which 
were casual sights or 
appearances, particu- 
larly the flight of birds, 
— by which means 
it was believed that 
Jupiter made known 
his will. Great skill 
was required in the 
" taking of the aus- 
pices," as it was called. No business of importance, public or pri- 
vate, was entered upon without the auspices being first consulted to 
ascertain whether they were favorable. 

The College of Pontiffs was so called probably because one of 
the duties of its members was to keep in repair a certain bridge 
(pons) over the Tiber. This guild was the most important of all 
the religious institutions of the Romans ; for to the pontiffs belonged 
the superintendence of all religious matters. The head of the college 
was called Pontifex Maximus, or " Chief Bridge Builder," which 
title was assumed by the Roman emperors, and after them by the 
Christian bishops of Rome ; and thus the name has come down to 
our times. 

The College of Heralds (Fetiales) had the care of all public 
matters pertaining to foreign nations. Thus, if the Roman people 



Fig. 4. Divining by Means of the Appearance 
of the Entrails of a Sacrificial Victim 

This was with the Romans a usual way of foretelling 
future events 



1 6 ROME AS A KINGDOM [§20 

had suffered any wrong from another state, and war was determined 
upon, then it was the duty of a herald to proceed to the frontier of 
the enemy's country and hurl over the boundary a spear dipped in 
blood. This was a declaration of war. The Romans were very 
careful in the observance of this ceremony. 1 

20. Sacred Games and Festivals. The Romans had many reli- 
gious games and festivals. Prominent among these were the so- 
called Circensian games, or games -of the circus, which were very 
similar to the sacred games of the Greeks. They consisted, in the 
main, of chariot-racing, wrestling, foot-racing, and various other 
athletic contests. 

These festivals, as in the case of those of the Greeks, had their 
origin in the belief that the gods delighted in the exhibition of feats 
of skill, strength, or endurance ; that their anger might be appeased 
by such spectacles ; or that they might by the promise of games be 
persuaded to lend aid to mortals in great emergencies. 2 At the open- 
ing of the year it was customary for the Roman magistrates, in the 
name of the state, to promise to the gods games and festivals, pro- 
vided good crops, protection from pestilence, and victory to their arms 
were vouchsafed to the Roman people during the year. 

Towards the close of the Republic these games lost much of their 
religious character, and at last became degraded into mere brutal 
shows given by ambitious leaders for the purpose of winning 
popularity. 

The Saturnalia were a festival held in December in honor of 
Saturn, the god of sowing. It was an occasion on which all classes, 
including the slaves, who were allowed to act during the celebration 
like freemen, gave themselves up to riotous amusements ; hence the 
significance we attach to the word saturnalian. The well-known 
Roman carnival of to-day is a survival of the ancient Saturnalia. 

1 Besides the members of the learned colleges there were priests, called flamincs, 
who had the oversight of the worship of Jupiter, Mars, Ouirinus, and other special deities. 

2 " The games were an entertainment offered to the guests [the gods, who were " the 
guests of honor,"] which were as certainly believed to be gratifying to their sight as a 
review of troops or a deer hunt to a modern European sovereign." — Wheeler, 
Dionysos and Immortality, p. n 



§21] THE LEGENDARY KINGS iy 

IV. ROME UNDER THE KINGS (Legendary Date 

753-509 B.C.) 

21. The Legendary Kings. The early government of Rome was 
a monarchy. The regal period, according to tradition, embraced 
nearly two and a half centuries (from 753 x to 509 B.C.). To span 
this period the legends of the Romans tell of the reigns of seven 
kings — Romulus, the founder of Rome ; Numa, the lawgiver ; 
Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Martius, both conquerors ; Tarquinius 
Priscus, the great builder ; Servius Tullius, the reorganizer of the 
government and second founder of the state ; and Tarquinius Super- 
bus, the haughty tyrant whose oppressions led to the abolition by 
the people of the office of king. 2 

The traditions of the doings of these monarchs and of what hap- 
pened to them blend hopelessly fact and fable. We cannot be quite 
sure even as to their names. Respecting Roman affairs, however, 
under the last three rulers (the Tarquins), who were of Etruscan 
origin, some important things are related, the substantial truth of 
which we may rely upon with a fair degree of certainty ; and these 
matters we shall notice in the following sections. 

22. Growth of Rome under the Tarquins. The Tarquins extended 
their authority over much of Latium. The position of supremacy 
thus given Rome was attended by the rapid growth of the city in 
population and importance. The original walls soon became too 
strait for the increasing multitudes ; new ramparts were built, — tra- 
dition says under the direction of the king Servius Tullius, — which, 
with a great circuit of seven miles, swept around the entire cluster 
of seven hills on the south bank of the Tiber, whence the name 
that Rome acquired of " the City of the Seven Hills." 

A large tract of marshy ground between the chief hills was re- 
claimed by means of the Cloaca Maxima, a great sewer or drain, 

1 Modern excavations and research have established the fact that there was a settle- 
ment on the site of Rome long before the eighth century, but it is necessary to keep in 
mind the traditional year (753 B.C.) of the founding of the city, because the Romans 
reckoned dates from that year. 

2 For some of the best-known legends of early Rome, see Legends of Early Rome, 
at the end of this chapter. 



i8 



ROME AS A KINGDOM 



[§23 



~ % ■;< jy 



:V. 




1 






which at a later period was covered with a vault of masonry. 
The land thus reclaimed became the Forum, the public market place 
of the early city. At one end of this public square, as we should 
call it, was the Cofnitium, an inclosure where assemblies for voting 
purposes were held. Standing on the dividing line between the 
Comitium and the Forum proper was the speakers' stand, later named 
the Rostra} This assembling place was in later times enlarged and 

decorated with various monu- 
ments and surrounded with splen- 
did buildings and porticoes. Here 
more was said, resolved upon, and 
done than upon any other spot 
in the ancient world. 

23. The Reforms of Servius 
Tullius : the Five Classes and 
the Four New Tribes. It was 
the second king of the Etruscan 
house, Servius Tullius by name, 
to whom tradition attributes a 
most important change in the 
constitution of the Roman state. 2 
He made property instead of 
birth, or membership in the primi- 
tive curiae and tribes, the basis 
of the duties, particularly the mili- 
tary duties, of citizenship. 

In the earliest times the army 



f 



$ 



>\ 



tm 



^m 



Fig. 



5. The Cloaca Maxima 
(From a photograph) 

Until recently the existing arch work of 
the " great sewer " was believed to be of 
Etruscan origin, but excavations made in 
the Forum in 1903 prove that this dates 
from the later Republic 

was composed of three thousand 
foot soldiers and three hundred horsemen, each of the three tribes 
furnishing one third of this number. Tradition affirms that this force 
had been doubled by Tarquinius Priscus. But the growing state — 
conquests had made additions both to the territory and the population 

1 So called because decorated with the beaks {rostra) of war galleys taken from 
enemies. 

2 The reform itself is an historical fact, but it is possible that it was not effected by 
the efforts of any particular king. It may have been the result of a long period of slow 
constitutional development. 



§24] 



THE ARMY; THE LEGION 



19 



of Rome — had come to need a larger military force than the original 
tribes alone could maintain. Servius Tullius increased the army by 
requiring all landowners between seventeen and sixty years of age 
to assume a place in the ranks. The whole body of persons thus 
made liable to military service was divided into five classes according 
to the amount of land each possessed. The largest landowners, most 
of whom at this time were patricians, were enrolled in the first three 
classes, and were required to provide them- 
selves with heavy armor ; the smaller pro- 
prietors, who made up the remaining two 
classes, were called upon to furnish them- 
selves with only a light equipment. 

At the same time, in place of the three 
old tribes there were now created four new 
ones, each including a part of the city area 
and also a part of the city territory beyond 
its walls. 1 Though these new divisions of 
the population were called tribes, still they 
were very different in character from the 
earlier divisions bearing this name. Mem- 
bership in one of the old tribes was deter- 
mined by birth or relationship, while 
membership in one of the new tribes was 
determined by place of residence. 2 

24. The Army; the Legion. The unit of 
the military organization was the century, 

probably containing at this time, as the name (centurid) indicates, 
one hundred men. 3 Forty-two centuries were united to form the 
legion, which thus at this period probably numbered forty-two hun- 
dred men, its normal strength till towards the end of the Republic. 

1 Somewhat later, after the expulsion of the kings (sect. 27), these four tribes were 
confined to the city, and the territory outside was divided into seventeen new tribes, 
known as rural tribes. 

2 Thus these new tribes were like our wards or townships. As new territory was 
acquired by the Romans through conquest, new tribes were created, until there were 
finally thirty-five, which number was never exceeded. 

3 Later the number of the body was increased so that the term century lost all 
numerical significance. 




Fig. 6. Roman Soldier 



20 ROME AS A KINGDOM [§25 

The tactical formation of the legion was the old Grecian phalanx, 
which seems to have been borrowed from the Dorian -cities of Magna 
Graecia. This legion phalanx had probably a front of five hundred 
men and a depth of six ranks. The heavy-equipped citizens made up 
the front ranks, the light-equipped the rear. 

There were at the period of the Servian reforms four legions. 
Two, composed of the younger men, were for service in the field ; 
the remaining two, made up of the older citizens, formed a sort of 
home guard. Besides the four legions there was a cavalry force of 
eighteen hundred men, made up of the richest landowners. This 
brought the total strength of the army, for both field and home 
service, up to about twenty thousand men. 

25. The Comitia Centuriata. The assembling place of those liable 
to military service,' thus organized into centuries and classes, was just 
outside the city walls, on a large plain called the Campus Martius, 
or Field of Mars. The meeting of these military orders was called 
the comitia centuriata, or the Assembly of Centuries. This body, in 
which the plebeians through the increase among them of the num- 
ber of rich landowners gradually acquired great influence, came in the 
course of time to absorb most of the powers of the earlier assembly 
{comiti,a curiatd). 

26. Importance of the Servian Reforms. The reforms of Servius 
Tullius were an important step towards the establishment of social 
and political equality between the two great orders of the state — 
the patricians and the plebeians. The new constitution, indeed, as 
Mommsen says, assigned to the plebeians duties chiefly, and not 
rights ; but being called upon to discharge the most important duties of 
citizens, it was not long before they demanded all the rights of citizens ; 
and as the bearers of arms they were able to enforce their demands. 1 

27. The Expulsion of the Kings. The legends, as already noted, 
make Tarquinius Superbus the last king of Rome. He is represented 
as a monstrous tyrant, whose arbitrary acts caused both patricians and 

1 This reform movement at Rome was part of a revolution which seems to have been 
participated in by all the peoples of Greece and Italy who had reached the city stage of 
development. Thus, at just about the time that tradition represents Servius Tullius as 
effecting his reform at Rome, Clisthenes, the Athenian legislator, was instituting a similar 
reform in the constitution of Athens. 



§27] LEGENDS OF EARLY ROME 21 

plebeians to unite and drive him and all his house into exile. This 
event, according to the Roman annalists, occurred in the year 509 B.C., 
only one year later than the expulsion of the tyrants from Athens. 1 

LEGENDS OF EARLY ROME 2 

Tale of the Founding of Rome. After Troy had been taken by the 
Greeks, the Trojan ^Eneas, led by the Fates, came in search of a new home 
to the Italian shores. First at a place called Lavinium, and later at Alba 
Longa, on the Alban Mount, there ruled a long line of his descendants. 
At length a usurper seized the throne, and caused the twin heir-princes, of 
whom the god Mars was declared to be the father, to be thrown into the 
Tiber. The cradle in which the babes were borne was cast upon the land 
by the strong current. Attracted by the cries of the children, a she-wolf 
directed her course to them, and with the greatest tenderness nursed them. 
Finally a shepherd, discovering the babes in the care of the wolf, took them 
to his home and reared them with his own children. 

When grown to be men, Romulus and Remus, — for so the brothers 
were named, — having put to death the usurper, resolved to build a city on 
the spot where they had been exposed and rescued. Unhappily, in a quar- 
rel as to which should give name to the new city, Remus was killed by his 
brother. Thus Romulus was left as the sole founder of the city, which was 
called Rome after him. 

The Romans Capture the Sabine Women for Wives. The new city, hav- 
ing been made by Romulus a sort of asylum or refuge for the discontented 
and the outlawed of all the surrounding states, soon became very populous, 
and more powerful than either Lavinium or Alba Longa. But there were 
few women among its inhabitants. Romulus therefore sent embassies to the 
neighboring cities to ask that his people might take wives from among them. 
But the adjoining nations were averse to entering into marriage alliances with 
the men of the new city. Thereupon the Roman youth determined to secure 
by violence what they could not obtain by other means. Romulus appointed a 
great festival, and invited to the celebration all the surrounding peoples. The 
Sabines especially came in great numbers with their wives and daughters. 
In the midst of the games, the Roman youth, at a preconcerted signal, 
rushed among the spectators, and seized and carried off to their homes the 
daughters of their guests. This violation of the laws of hospitality led to a 
war on the part of the injured Sabines against the Romans. Peace, how- 
ever, was made between the combatants by the young women themselves, 

1 See Eastern Nations and Greece, (2nd Rev. Ed.), sect. 203. 

2 From Livy's History of Rome, i, ii. In this connection read Macaulay's Lays of 
Ancient Rome. 



22 ROME AS A KINGDOM [§27 

who, as the wives of their captors, had become reconciled to their lot. The . 
two nations were now combined into one, the Sabines removing to one of 
the Seven Hills. Each people, however, retained its own king ; but upon 
the death of the Sabine king, Titus Tatius, Romulus ruled over both the 
Romans and the Sabines. During a thunderstorm Romulus was caught up 
to the skies, and Numa Pompilius ruled in his stead. 

The Combat between the Horatii and the Curiatii. In process of time a 
war. broke out between Rome and Alba Longa. It might be called a civil 
war, for the Romans and Albans were alike descendants of the Trojan 
exiles. The two armies were ready to engage in battle when it was proposed 
•that the controversy should be decided by a combat between three Alban 
brothers named the Curiatii, and three Roman brothers known as the 
Horatii. The nation whose champions gained the victory was to rule over 
the other. On the signal being given, the combat began. Two of the 
Romans soon fell lifeless, and the three Curiatii were wounded. The re- 
maining Roman, who was unhurt, was now surrounded by the three Albans. 
To avoid their united attack, he turned and fled, thinking that they, being 
wounded, would almost certainly become separated in following him. This 
did actually happen ; and when Horatius, looking back as he fled, saw the 
Curiatii to be following him at different intervals, he turned himself about 
and fell upon his pursuers, one after the other, and despatched them. 

So in accordance with the terms of the treaty which the two cities had 
made, conditioned on the issue of the fight between the champions, Rome 
held dominion over Alba Longa. But the league between the Romans and 
the Albans was soon broken, and then the Romans, demolishing the houses 
of Alba Longa, carried off all the inhabitants to Rome, and incorporated 
them with the Roman state. 1 

The Exploit of Horatius Codes. After the expulsion of the Tarquins 
from Rome, they besought Porsenna, king of Clusium, a powerful city of 
Etruria, to espouse their cause, and help them to regain the kingly power 
at Rome. Porsenna lent a favorable ear to their solicitations, and made war 
upon the Roman state. As his army drew near to Rome, all the people 
from the surrounding country hastened within the city gates. The bravery 
of a single man, Horatius Codes, alone prevented the enemy from effecting 
an entrance into the city. This man was posted as a guard on the Sublician 
Bridge, which led across the Tiber from the citadel of the Janiculum. The 
Janiculum having been taken by the enemy, its defenders were retreating 
in great disorder across the bridge, and the victors following closer after. 
Horatius Codes called after his fleeing companions to break down the 
bridge, while he held the pursuers at bay. Taking his stand at the farther 

1 For the sequel of this story, see Livy, i, 26. 



§27] LEGENDS OF EARLY ROME 23 

entrance of the bridge, he, with the help of two comrades, held the enemy 
in check, while the structure was being destroyed. As the bridge fell with 
a crash into the stream, Codes leaped into the water, and amidst a shower 
of darts swam in safety to the Roman side. Through his bravery he had 
saved Rome. His grateful countrymen erected a statue to his honor, and 
voted him a plot of land as large as he could plough in a single day. 

The Fortitude of Mucius Scaevola. Failing to take Rome by assault, Por- 
senna endeavored to reduce it by a regular siege. After the investment had 
been maintained for a considerable time, a Roman youth, Gaius Mucius by 
name, resolved to deliver the city from the presence of the besiegers by 
going into the camp of the enemy and killing Porsenna. Through a mis- 
take, however, he slew the secretary of the king instead of the king him- 
self. He was seized and brought into the presence of Porsenna, who 
threatened him with punishment by fire unless he made a full disclosure of 
the Roman plots. Mucius, to show the king how little he could be moved 
by threats, thrust his right hand into a flame that was near, and held it 
there unflinchingly until it was consumed. Porsenna was so impressed by 
the fortitude of the youth, that he dismissed him without punishment. 
From the loss of his right hand, Mucius received the surname of Scczvola, 
" The Left-handed." 

Selections from the Sources. Plutarch, Romulus and Mima (in the case 
of these particular lives the student will of course bear in mind that he is read- 
ing Roman folklore ; but it is worth while for the student of Roman history to 
know what the Romans of later times themselves believed respecting their 
early kings). Livy, i, ii (a choice may be made among the early legends). 
Munro's Source Book, pp. 4-19; Davis's Readings (Rome), pp. 5-15. 

Secondary Works. Mommsen, vol. i, bk. i, chaps, iv-xv. Coulanges, The 
Ancient City, bk. i, chaps, i-iv, "Ancient Beliefs"; bk. ii, chap, i, " Religion 
was the Constituent Principle of the Ancient Family"; chap, x, "The Gens 
at Rome and in Greece." Duruy, vol. i, chaps, i, iv. How and Leigh, History 
of Rome, pp. 20-52, 288-293. Seignobos (Fairly ed.), History of the Roman 
People, chaps, ii, iv. Pelham, Outlines of Roman History, bk. i, chaps, ii, iii. 
Ihne, Early Rome. Fowler, The City-state of the Greeks and Romans, 
chaps, ii, iii. Morey, Outlines of Roman Law, chap, i, "The Organization 
of Early Roman Society." Abbott, Roman Political Institutions, chaps, i, ii. 
Greenidge, Roman Ptiblic Life, chap. i. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. The family cult and the patria potestas : 
Johnston, The Private Life of the Romans, pp. 28—32 ; Wilkins, Roman Antiqui- 
ties, chap. iii. 2. The Roman character : Wilkins, Rojnan Antiquities, chap. i. 

3. The position of women : Johnston, The Private Life of the Romans, pp. 64-66. 

4. Prehistoric Rome : Lanciani, Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discov- 
eries, chap, ii, " The Foundation and Prehistoric Life of Rome." 



( 



SECOND PERIOD— ROME AS A REPUBLIC 

(509-31 B.C.) 

CHAPTER III 

THE EARLY REPUBLIC; PLEBEIANS SECURE EQUALITY 
WITH THE PATRICIANS 

(509-367 B.C.) 

28. Republican Magistrates : the Consuls and the Dictator. With 
the monarchy overthrown and the last king and his house banished 
from Rome, the people set to work to reorganize the government. 
In place of the king there were elected two patrician magistrates, 
called at first prcetors or " leaders," but later, consuls or " colleagues." 
These magistrates were chosen for one year, and were invested with 
all the powers, save some priestly functions, that had been exercised 
by the king during the regal period. In public each consul was 
attended, as the king had been, by twelve lictors, each bearing the 
" dread fasces " (Fig. 7). 

Each consul had the power of obstructing the acts or vetoing the 
commands of the other. This was called the " right of intercession." 
This division of authority weakened the executive, so that in times of 
great public danger it was necessary to supersede the consuls by the 
appointment of a special officer bearing the title of dictator, whose 
term of office was limited to six months, but whose power during this 
time was as unlimited as that of the king had been. The dictator was 
nominated by one of the consuls acting under an order of the Senate 
which must be obeyed. He was preceded by twenty-four lictors. ^ 

A consul could not be impeached, or reached by any legal or con- 
stitutional process, while in office ; but after the expiration of his term 
he could be prosecuted for any misconduct or illegal act of which he 

24 



§29] 



THE RIGHT OF APPEAL 



25 



might have been guilty while holding his magistracy. This rule was 
applied to all the other magistrates of the Republic. 

29. The Right of Appeal Secured by the Valerian Law (509 B.C.). 

We have seen that virtually all the authority exercised by the king 
was transferred in undimin- 
ished measure to the consuls. 
But the very- year of the 
overthrow of the regal power, 
the authority of the consuls 
was restricted in a most im- 
portant respect. The consul 
Publius Valerius secured the 
passage of a law concerning 
appeals known as the Valerian 
Law, which forbade any mag- 
istrate, except a dictator, to put 
any Roman citizen to death 
without the sanction, on ap- 
peal, of the people in the 
Assembly of Centuries. This 
law, however, did not bind 
the consuls when they were 
at the head of the army out- 
side the city. From this time 
on, the consular lictors, when 
accompanying the consuls 
within the city, removed the ax 
from the fasces, as a symbol 
that the power to execute there 
the death sentence upon any 
citizen had been taken away. 

This right of appeal from the sentence of a magistrate in cases 
involving life and death was afterwards extended to cases of flogging, 
and thus it became a very great security to the citizen against unjust 
and cruel treatment at the hands of arbitrary magistrates. More 
than five hundred years after the enactment of this law Paul the 




Fig. 7. Lictors with Fasces 

The symbolic fasces borne by these officers were 

probably of Etruscan origin. The Tarquins are 

said to have brought them to Rome along with 

other insignia of the kingly office 



26 THE EARLY REPUBLIC [§30 

Apostle, having been flogged by his jailer, caused him to fall into 
great fear by sending him word that he had beaten openly and 
uncondemned a Roman citizen. 1 

30. First Secession of the Plebeians (traditional date 494 B.C.). 
The law of debt in early Rome was very harsh. During the period 
of disorder and war which followed the expulsion of the Tarquins, 
poor plebeians fell in debt to the wealthy class, and payment was 
exacted with heartless severity. A debtor became the absolute prop- 
erty of his creditor, who might sell him as a slave to pay the debt, 
and in some cases might even put him to death. 

The situation was intolerable. The plebeians resolved to secede 
from Rome and build a new city for themselves on a neighboring 
eminence, known afterwards as the Sacred Mount. Having on one 
occasion been called to arms to repel an invasion, they refused to 
march out against the enemy, but instead marched away in a body 
from Rome to the spot selected beforehand, and began to make 
preparations for erecting new homes. 

31. The Covenant and the Tribunes. The patricians well knew 
that such a division would prove ruinous to the state, and that the 
plebeians must be persuaded to give up their enterprise and come 
back to Rome. The consul Valerius was sent to treat with the in- 
surgents. The plebeians were at first obdurate, but at last were 
persuaded to yield to the entreaties of the embassy to return, being 
won to this mind, so it is said, by one of the wise senators, who made 
use of the well-known fable of " the Body and the Members." 

The following covenant was entered into and bound by the most 
solemn oaths : the debts of the poor plebeians were to be canceled 
and debtors held in slavery set free ; and two (the number was soon 
increased to ten) plebeian magistrates called tribunes, whose duty 
it should be to watch over the plebeians and protect them against 
the injustice and partiality of the patrician magistrates, were to be 
chosen in an assembly of the plebeians. 2 

1 Acts xxii, 25-29. It was also under this same law, as revised later (it was revised 
and confirmed 449 b. c. and again 300 B.C.), that Paul accused before Festus, appealed 
unto Caesar (Acts xxv, 11). 

2 This assembly, the origin of which is obscure, is known as the Assembly of Tribes 
{comitia tributa)* 



§32] BORDER WARS AND BORDER TALES 27 

That the tribunes might be the protectors of the plebeians in 
something more than name, they were invested with an extraor- 
dinary power known as the jus auxilii, " the right of aid " ; that 
is, they were given the right, should any patrician magistrate at- 
tempt to deal wrongfully with a plebeian, to annul his act or stop 
his proceeding. 1 

The persons of the tribunes were made inviolable, like the persons 
of heralds or ambassadors. Any person interrupting a tribune in the 
discharge of his duties or doing him any violence was declared an 
outlaw whom any one might kill. That the tribunes might be always 
easily found, they were not allowed to go more than one mile beyond 
the city walls. Their houses were to be open night and day, that 
any plebeian unjustly dealt with might flee thither for protection 
and refuge. 2 

32. Border Wars and Border Tales ; Cincinnatus. The chief 
enemies of early Rome and her Latin allies were the Volscians, the 
yEquians, the Sabines, and the Etruscans. For more than a hundred 
years after the founding of the Republic, Rome, either alone or in 
connection with her confederates, was almost constantly fighting one 
or another or all of these peoples. But these operations cannot be 
regarded as real wars. They were, on the side of both parties, for 
the most part mere plundering forays or cattle-raiding expeditions 
into the enemy's territories. We shall probably not get a wrong idea 
of their real character if we liken them to the early so-called border 
wars between England and Scotland. Like the Scottish wars, they 
were embellished by the Roman story-tellers with the most extrava- 
gant and picturesque tales. One of the best known is the tale of 
Cincinnatus. The legend tells how, while one of the consuls was 
away fighting the Sabines, the vEquians defeated the forces of the 
other and shut them up in a narrow valley whence escape seemed 

1 A tribune, however, had no authority over a consul when the consul was at the 
head of the army away from Rome, but under all other circumstances he could for 
disobedience even arrest and imprison him. 

2 Roman writers assign to this period the beginning of the quarrel concerning the 
disposal of the public lands. This land question was the eternal question at Rome. We 
shall examine this subject in connection with the great reformers Tiberius and Gaius 
Gracchus. See sects. 86—88. 



28 



THE EARLY REPUBLIC 



[§33 



impossible. There was great terror in Rome when news of the situ- 
ation of the army was brought to the city. The Senate immediately 
appointed Cincinnatus, a grand old patrician, dictator. The com- 
missioners who carried to him the message from the Senate found 
him upon his little farm across the Tiber, at work ploughing. Cincin- 
natus at once accepted the office, gathered the Roman army, sur- 
rounded and captured the enemy, and sent them all beneath the 




The Roman Domain. 

The Latin Confederacy. 

The original domain of the city of Rome 



The Roman Domain and the Latin Confederacy in the Time of the 
Early Republic, about 450 b. c. 

yoke. 1 He then led his army back to Rome in triumph, laid down 
his office, having held it only sixteen days, and sought again the 
retirement of his farm. 

33. The Decemvirs and the Twelve Tables of Laws (traditional 
date 451-450 B.C.). While these petty border wars were furnishing 
the material for tales of adventure and heroism, the contest between 

1 This was formed of two spears thrust firmly into the ground and crossed a few feet 
from the earth by a third spear. Prisoners of war were forced to pass beneath this yoke 
as a symbol of submission. 



§33] THE TWELVE TABLES OF LAWS 29 

the patricians and plebeians was going on unceasingly in the very 
heart of the community itself. One phase of this struggle consti- 
tutes a landmark in the history of Rome. This was the revision and 
reduction to writing of the customs and laws of the state. 

Written laws are always a great safeguard against oppression. 
Until what shall constitute a crime and what shall be its penalty 
are clearly written down and well known and understood by all, 
judges may render unfair decisions or inflict unjust punishment, 
and yet run little risk — unless they go altogether too far — of 
being called to account ; for no one but themselves knows what 
either the law or the penalty really is. Hence, in all struggles of the 
people against the tyranny of a ruling class, the demand for written 
laws is one of the first measures taken by them for the protection of 
their persons and property. Thus the commons at Athens, early in 
their struggle with the nobles, demanded and obtained a code of 
written laws. The same thing now took place at Rome. The ple- 
beians demanded that the laws be written down and published. The 
patricians offered a stubborn resistance to their wishes but finally 
were forced to yield to the popular clamor. 

A commission, so tradition says, was sent to the Greek cities of 
southern Italy and to Athens to study their laws and customs. Upon 
the return of this embassy, a commission of ten magistrates, who 
were known as decemvirs, was appointed to frame a code of laws. 
These officers, while engaged in this work, were also to administer 
the entire government, and so were invested with the supreme power 
of the state. The patricians gave up their consuls, and the plebeians 
their tribunes. At the end of the first year the task of the board was 
quite far from being concluded, so a new decemvirate was elected to' 
complete the work. The code was soon finished, and the laws were 
written on twelve tablets of bronze, which were fastened to the 
Rostra, or orator's platform in the Forum, where they might be 
seen and read by all. 

Only a few fragments of these celebrated laws have been pre- 
served, but the substance of a considerable part of the code is 
known to us through the indirect quotations from it or allusions to 
it occurring in the works of later writers and jurists. The following 



30 THE EARLY REPUBLIC [§34 

quotations will give some idea of the characters of this primitive law- 
system — the starting-point of a great development (see sect. 192). 

The provisions regarding the treatment of debtors .are noteworthy. 
The law provided that, after the lapse of a certain number of days 
of grace, the creditor of a delinquent debtor might put him in the 
stocks or in chains, sell him to any stranger resident beyond the 
Tiber, or put him to death. In case there were several creditors 
the law provided as follows : " After the third market day his [the 
debtor's] body may be divided. Any one taking more than his just 
share shall be held guiltless." We are informed by later Roman 
writers that this savage provision of the law was, as a matter of 
fact, never carried into effect. 

A special provision touching the power of the father over his sons 
provided that " during their whole life he shall have the right to im- 
prison, scourge, keep to rustic labor in chains, to sell or to slay, even 
though they may be in the enjoyment of high state offices." The 
prevalence of popular superstitions is revealed by one of the laws 
which provides for the punishment of any one who by enchantments 
should blight the crops of another. 

These " Laws of the Twelve Tables " formed the basis of all new 
legislation, touching private or personal rights, for many centuries, 
and constituted a part of the education of the Roman youth — 
every schoolboy being required to learn them by heart. 

34. Misrule and ■ Overthrow of the Decemvirs; Second Secession 
of the Plebeians (450 B.C.). The first decemvirs used the great power 
lodged in their hands with justice and prudence ; but the second board, 
under the leadership of one Appius Claudius, instituted, if we may 
believe tradition, a most infamous and tyrannical rule. No man's 
life was safe, be he patrician or plebeian. An ex-tribune, daring to 
denounce the course of the decemvirs, was caused by them to be 
assassinated. 

Another act, even more outrageous than this, filled to the brim 
the cup of their iniquities. Virginia was the beautiful daughter of a 
plebeian. Appius Claudius, desiring to gain possession of her, made 
use of his authority as a judge to pronounce her a slave. The father 
of the maiden, preferring the death of his daughter to her dishonor, 



§35] THE VALERIO-HORATIAN LAWS 31 

killed her with his own hand. Then, drawing the weapon from her 
breast, he hastened to the army, which was away from Rome resist- 
ing a united invasion of the Sabines and ^Equians, and, exhibiting the 
bloody knife, told the story of the outrage. 1 

The soldiers rose as a single man and hurried to the city. The 
excitement resulted in a great body of the Romans, probably chiefly 
plebeians, seceding from the state and marching away to the Sacred 
Hill. This procedure, which once before had proved so effectual in 
securing justice to the oppressed, had a similar issue now. The situ- 
ation was so critical that the decemvirs were forced to resign. The 
consulate and the tribunate were restored. 

35. The Valerio-Horatian Laws; "the Roman Magna Charta " 
(449 B.C.). The consuls chosen were Lucius Valerius and Marcus 
Horatius, who secured the passage of certain laws, known as the 
Valerio-Horatian Laws. These laws were of such constitutional impor- 
tance that they have been called " the Magna Charta of Rome." Like 
the great English charter, their purpose was not so much the creation 
of new safeguards of liberty as the reaffirming and strengthening of 
the old securities of the rights and privileges of the humbler citizens 
of Rome. Among the provisions of the laws the following were the 
most important : 

1. That the resolutions {plebiscite?) passed by the plebeian Assem- 
bly of Tribes should in the future, presumably if they received the 
sanction of the Senate, 2 have the force of laws and should bind the 
whole people the same as the resolutions of the comitia centuriata. 

2. That the law which made sacred and inviolable the person of 
the tribunes be reaffirmed and its operation extended to certain other 
plebeian magistrates, and that he who did injury to any plebeian 
magistrate be accursed and his property dedicated to the service 
of the gods. 

1 Livy, iii, 44-50. This tale is possibly mythical, but it at least gives a vivid, and 
doubtless truthful, picture of the times. 

2 Our authority here (Livy, iii, 55) makes no mention whatsoever of conditions. 
Since, however, at this time the approval of the Senate was necessary to give validity to 
acts of the people in the Assembly of Centuries it is a reasonable conjecture that the 
measures of the plebeians in the Assembly of Tribes must have been subjected to the 
came condition. At a later period both assemblies were emancipated from the control 
of the Senate. See below, p. 36, n. 2. 



32 THE EARLY REPUBLIC [§36 

3. That the tribunes be permitted to sit as listeners before the 

door of the Senate house. This was an important concession, on 

account of what it led to ; for very soon the tribunes secured the 

right, first to sit within the Senate hall itself, and then to put a stop 

, to any proceeding of the Senate by the use of the veto. 

We may summarize the effect of these laws by saying that they 
made the tribunes and the other plebeian magistrates, as well as the 
plebeian assembly, a recognized part of the constitutional arrange- 
ments of the Roman commonwealth. They mark a long step taken 
towards the equalization of the two orders within the state. 

36. Marriages between Patricians and Plebeians made Legal 
(445 B.C.). Up to this time the plebeians had not been allowed to 
contract legal marriages with the patricians. But only a few years 
after the passage of the Valerio-Horatian Laws marriages between 
plebeians and patricians were legalized. 

This established social equality between the two orders. The ple- 
beians were now in a more advantageous position for continuing their 
struggle for additional civil rights and for perfect political equality 
with the patricians. 

37. Military Tribunes with Consular Power (444 B.C.). This same 
tribune Canuleius also brought forward another proposal, which pro- 
vided that plebeians might be chosen as consuls. This suggestion 
led to a violent contention between the two orders. The issue of 
the matter was a compromise. 

It was agreed that, in place of the two patrician consuls, the 
people might elect from either order magistrates that should be. 
known as " military tribunes with consular powers." These officers, 
whose number varied, differed from consuls more in name than in 
functions or in authority. In fact, the plebeians had gained the 
consular office but not the consular name. 

The patricians were especially unwilling that any plebeian should 
bear the title of consul, for the reason that an ex-consul enjoyed 
certain dignities and honors, such as the right to wear a particular 
kind of dress and to set up in his house images of his ancestors (Jus 
imaginum). These honorary distinctions the higher order wished to 
retain exclusively for themselves. Owing to the great influence of 



§38] THE CENSORS 33 

the patricians in the elections, it was not until about 400 B.C. that 
a plebeian was chosen to the new office. 

38. The Censors (443 B.C.). No sooner had the plebeians secured 
the right of admission to the military tribunate with consular powers, 
than the jealous and exclusive patricians began scheming to rob them 
of the fruit of the victory they had gained. They effected this by 
taking from the consulate some of its most distinctive duties and 
powers, and conferring them upon two new patrician officers called 
censors. 

The functions of these magistrates, which were gradually extended 
as time passed, were many and important. They took the census 
of the citizens and their property, and thus assigned to every man 
his position in the different classes. They could, for immorality or 
for any improper conduct, degrade a knight from his rank, expel a 
member from the Senate, or deprive any citizen of his vote by strik- 
ing his name from the roll of the tribes. It was. their duty to rebuke 
ostentation and extravagance in living, and in particular to watch 
over the morals of the young. From the name of these Roman 
officers comes our word censorious, meaning fault-finding. 

39. Siege and Capture of Veii (405-396 B.C.) ; the Romanization of 
Etruria. We must now turn our attention once more to the fortunes 
of Rome in war. Almost from the founding of the city we find 
its warlike citizens carrying on a fierce contest with their powerful 
Etruscan neighbors on the north. The war finally gathered around 
Veii, the largest and richest of the cities of Etruria. The place was 
at length taken, and the immense spoils were carried to Rome. 

The siege of Veii forms a sort of landmark in the military history 
of Rome. The length of the siege and the necessity of maintaining 
a force permanently in the field, winter and summer alike, led to the 
introduction of pay into the army ; for hitherto the common soldier 
had not only equipped himself but had served without pay. From 
this time forward the professional soldier came more and more to 
take the place of the citizen soldier. 

The capture of Veii was followed by that'of many other Etruscan 
towns, and all the southern portion of Etruria, divided into four 
tribes or wards, was added to the Roman domain, doubling it in 



34 THE EARLY REPUBLIC [§40 

extent. Into this rich and inviting region thus opened up to Roman 
enterprise, Roman immigrants crowded in great numbers, and soon 
all this part of Etruria became Roman in manners, in customs, and 
in speech. The Romanization of Italy was now fairly begun. 

A generation or so after the absorption by Rome of southern 
Etruria, an unsuccessful war against the Romans by the Etruscan 
cities that still retained their independence marks the decisive turning 
point in the fortunes of the Etruscan race. We shall find them in 
arms against Rome again and again after this, but their attacks were 
no longer formidable. What elements of vitality and strength still 
remained in the race were gradually absorbed by Rome, and the 
Etruscan people and the Etruscan civilization, as distinct factors in 
history, disappeared from the world. 

40. Sack of Rome by the Gauls (traditional date 390 B.C.). Only 
a few years after the fall of Veii, there broke upon Rome a storm 
from the north which all but cut short the story we are narrating. 
We have noticed how, in early times, Celtic tribes from Gaul crossed 
the Alps and established themselves in northern Italy (sect. i). 
While the Romans were conquering the towns of Etruria these bar- 
barian hordes were moving southward and overrunning and devastating 
the countries of central Italy. 

They soon appeared in the neighborhood of Rome. A Roman 
army met them on or near the river Allia, a few miles from the capi- 
tal. But an unaccountable panic seized the Romans and they aban- 
doned the field in disgraceful flight. The greater part of the fugitives 
sought safety behind the walls of Veii, which were still standing. 

Consternation filled the capital when news of the terrible disaster 
reached the city. The vestal virgins, hastily burying such of the 
sacred things of the temple of Vesta as they could not carry away, 
fled into Etruria, and found a kind reception at the hands of the people 
of Caere. A large part of the population of Rome followed them 
across the river and threw themselves into such places of safety as 
they could find. No attempt was made to defend any portion of the 
city except the citadel. A tradition tells how, when the barbarians, 
under cover of the darkness of night, had climbed the steep rock 
and had almost effected an entrance to the citadel, the defenders 



§41] THE LICINIAN LAWS 35 

were awakened by the cackling of some geese, which the piety of the 
famishing soldiers had spared because these birds were sacred to Juno. 

News was now brought the Gauls that the Venetians were over- 
running their possessions in northern Italy. This led them to open 
negotiations with the Romans. For one thousand pounds of gold 
the Gauls agreed to retire from the city. As the story runs, while 
the gold was being weighed out in the Forum the Romans com- 
plained that the weights were false, whereupon Brennus, the Gallic 
leader, threw his sword also into the scales, exclaiming, " Vcz vidis /" 
w Woe to the vanquished ! " Just at this moment, so the patriotic tale 
continues, Camillus, a brave patrician general who had been appointed 
dictator, appeared upon the scene with a Roman army that had been 
gathered from the fugitives. As with heavy blows he scattered the 
barbarians, he exclaimed, " Rome is ransomed with steel, and not 
with gold." According to one account Brennus himself was taken 
prisoner ; but another tradition says that he escaped, carrying with 
him the ransom money. 

The city was quickly rebuilt. There were some things, however, 
which could not be restored. These w r ere the ancient records and 
documents, through whose irreparable loss the early history of Rome 
is involved in great obscurity and uncertainty. 

41. The Licinian Laws; the Consulate Opened to Plebeians. 
Soon after these events a great advance of the plebeians towards 
equality with the patricians was effected through the passage of the 
Licinian Laws, so called from one of their proposers, the tribune 
Gaius Licinius. The only provisions of these laws which we need to 
notice here were the following: (1) that the office of military tribune 
with consular power (sect. 37) should be abolished, that two consuls 
should be chosen yearly as at first, and that one of these should be 
a plebeian ; (2) that in place of the two patrician keepers of the 
Sibylline Books (sect. 19) there should in the future be ten keepers, 
and that five of these should be plebeians. 

For ten years the patricians withstood the demands of the commons ; 
but finally, when they saw that it would be impossible longer to resist 
the popular demand, they had recourse to the old device. They les- 
sened the powers of the consulship by taking away from the consuls 



36 THE EARLY REPUBLIC [§41 

an important part of their judicial functions and devolving them 
upon a new patrician magistrate bearing the name of prcetor. The 
pretext for this was that the plebeians had no knowledge of the 
sacred formulas of the law. The Senate then approved the proposals 
and they became laws (367 B.C.). The son of a peasant might now 
rise to the highest office in the state. The plebeians later gained with 
comparative ease admission to the remaining offices from which the 
jealousy of the patricians still excluded them. 1 

As a symbol and memorial of the virtual end of the long con- 
tention between the two orders of the state, 2 the year following the 
passage of the Licinian Laws there was erected near the Comitium a 
temple dedicated to the goddess Concord. The reconciliation of the 
orders insured the future of Rome. It was followed by a century of 
successful wars which made the city the mistress of Italy and paved 
the way for her advance to the dominion of the civilized world. 

Selections from the Sources. Plutarch, Poplicola and Gains Marcius Cori- 

olanus. Livy, ii, 33, 34, 39, 40 (for the story of Coriolanus) ; v, 35-49 (on the 
taking of Rome by the Gauls). Munro's Soicrce Book, pp. 47-64, 71—77 ; Davis's 
Readings (Rome), pp. 15-33, 42-48. 

References (Modern). Mommsen, vol. i, bk. ii, chaps, i-iii. Duruy, vol. i, 
chaps, vi-xiii. Pelham, Outlines of Roman History, bk. ii, chap. i. How and 
Leigh, History of Rome, chaps, v-xiii. Shuckburgh, History of Rome, 
chaps, v, viii, ix. Abbott, Roman Political Institutions, pp. 24-57. Ihne, Early 
Rome, chaps, x-xxi. P'rank, Roman Imperialism, chaps, i, ii. Greenidge, 
Roman Public Life, chap. ii. Granrud, Ro?nan Constitutional History , pp. 27-92. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Legend of the Fabii : Livy, ii, 48, 49. 2. Vir- 
tues prized by the early Romans as shown by the stories of their heroes 
(Mucius Scaevola, Cincinnatus, Lucius Junius Brutus, Marcus Curtius, etc.): 
find these tales by use of the indexes of available histories. 

1 They secured admission to the dictatorship in 356 B.C.; to the censorship in 
351 B.C.; to the praetorship in 337 B.C. 

2 Though with the opening of the consulate to the plebeians the issue of the struggle 
between the orders was virtually decided, there was something lacking to render com- 
plete the triumph of the plebeians. The assembly of the plebs was still subject to the 
control of the aristocratic Senate (see p. 31, n. 2). By the famous Hortensian Law, 
287 B.C., it was emancipated from this control, and became, like the Assembly of Centuries 
(which had been freed from the power of the Senate by the so-called Publilian Law, 
339 B.C.), an independent sovereign legislature whose acts bound the whole people. 
This emancipation measure may be compared to that which in 191 1 freed the English 
House of Commons from the virtual control of the House of Lords. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CONQUEST AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

(367-264 B.C.) 

42. Rome Creates a New Grade of Citizens ; the Case of Caere 
(353 B.C.). It will be fitting if we begin the present chapter, in which 
we shall have much to say concerning the matter of Roman citizenship, 
with an account of the creation by the city of a new grade of citizens. 1 

We have seen how, after the taking of Veii, the Romans incorpo- 
rated with the territory of their state a great part of southern Etruria 
(sect. 39). The Romanization of these lands, and the threatening 
advance of the Roman power in these regions, caused an uprising of 
several of the Etruscan cities, among them Caere. The movement 
was quickly suppressed and the leaders punished. But the people 
of Caere, because this city at the time Rome was destroyed by the 
Gauls had given an asylum to the vestal virgins and the sacred 
things of the Roman gods (sect. 40), were dealt with leniently. 
Their political independence was, indeed, taken away from them, 
and their territory incorporated with the Roman state, but they 
were left in control of their own local affairs, and were given all the 
private rights of Roman citizens, but not the right to hold office or 
to vote in the assemblies at Rome. 2 

43. The Beginning of the Roman Municipal System. Now the 
Roman statesmen in determining the relations of Caere to Rome had 
done something more than to create a new class or grade of Roman 
citizens. They had, consciously or unconsciously, created a new sys- 
tem of government. For Rome had never before, so far as we know 

1 The student should here reread sect. 13. 

2 The class of rights conferred upon the citizens of Caere were known as " Casritan 
rights." 

37 



38 CONQUEST AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY [§43 

positively, 1 dealt with a conquered city in just the way that she dealt 
with Caere. When Alba Longa (a leading city of Latium) was taken, 
in the times of the kings, the city, according to the tradition, was 
destroyed, and its inhabitants transported in a body to Rome and 
incorporated with the Roman people. When Veii was taken, in the 
year 396 B.C. (sect. 39), the greater part of the inhabitants were 
killed or sold as slaves, and the vanquished community was thus 
wholly broken up and, as it were, wiped out of existence. 

Now Rome admittedly could not attain to greatness by following 
either of these two policies. But in dealing with Caere, she happily 
hit upon a new governmental device which enabled her to incorporate 
into her growing dominions one conquered city after another until she 
had absorbed the whole Mediterranean world. This device was what 
is known as the municipal system, for the reason that the Roman 
writers gave to a city having a status like that of Caere the name 
munidpium. 

We shall best secure a good understanding of the essential feature 
of this municipal system, if we glance at the system as it exists among 
ourselves to-day ; for our so-called municipal system, in its underlying 
principle, is an inheritance from Rome. A municipality or municipal 
town in our system of government is a city which, acting under a 
charter granted by the state in whose territory it is situated and of 
which it forms a part, elects its own magistrates, and manages, with 
more or less supervision on the part of the state, its own local affairs. 
The essential principle involved in the arrangement is local self- 
government, carried on under the superior authority of the state. 
The city, without its local political life having been stifled, has been 
made a vital part of a larger political organism. 

How this form of government fostered among the Italians, at one 
and the same time, local patriotism and national patriotism, love for 
one's native city and interest and pride in the affairs of the greater 
commonwealth of which that city was only a part, is well illustrated 
by these memorable words once used by Cicero : " Every burgher of a 

1 Some authorities maintain that Gabii, with which city Rome had treaty relations just 
at the opening of history, others that Tusculum, which was subjected in some way to 
Rome in 381 B.C., was the most ancient of Roman municipia. The question of precedence 
here raised has, however, only an antiquarian interest. 



§ 44] THE REVOLT OF THE LATIN CITIES 39 

corporate town," he says, " has, I take it, two fatherlands, that of which 
he is a native, and that of which he is a citizen. I will never deny 
allegiance to my native town, only I will never forget that Rome is my 
greater Fatherland, and that Arpinum 1 is but a portion of Rome." 2 

What we have now said will convey some idea of the important 
place which the municipal system of Rome holds in the development 
of free self-government among men. This was Rome's great, and 
almost her only, contribution to political constitutional history, and 
after her law system (sect. 190) her best gift to civilization. 

44. The Revolt of the Latin Cities (340-338 B.C.). This govern- 
mental device of the municipium was first applied by Rome, in a large 
way, to the neighboring cities of Latium. We have seen how at the 
opening of the historic period the little city-states of this region formed 
a federation known as the Latin League, of which Rome was the 
leading member (sect. 5). At the outset this association seems to 
have been somewhat like the Delian League, which after the repulse 
of the Persians from Greece Athens formed with her Ionian allies. 
But as time passed Rome began to play in the league the same 
role that Athens played in the Delian Confederacy. She used her 
position in the at first equal alliance between her and the Latin 
towns to make herself virtually their master. From allies -they 
became dependents. With this position they could not be satisfied. 
They resolved that Rome should give up the sovereignty she was 
virtually exercising. Accordingly they sent an embassy to Rome, 
demanding that the association should be made one of perfect equality. 
To this end the ambassadors proposed that in the future one of the 
consuls should be a Latin, and that one half of the Senate should be 
chosen from the Latin nation. Rome was to be the common father- 
land, and all were to bear the Roman name. 

These demands of the ambassadors were listened to by the Roman 
senators with amazement and indignation. " O Jupiter ! " exclaimed 
Titus Manlius, one of the consuls, addressing the statue of the god, 
" canst thou endure to behold in thy own sacred temple strangers as 
consuls and as senators ? " 3 

1 Cicero's birthplace. 

' 2 De Legibas, ii, 2, 5 ; as quoted by Strachan-Davidson, Cicero, p. 6. 3 Livy, viii, 5. 



40 CONQUEST AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY [§ 45 

The demands of the Latin allies were refused, and war followed. 
After about three years hard fighting, the rebellion was subdued. 
Rome now dissolved the Latin League and resettled her relations to 
its members. The essence of this famous settlement was that most 
of the cities — a few, three or four, were left their independence — 
were made municipia of different grades ; that is to say, they were 
deprived of sovereignty and their territories were made a part of the 
Roman domain, but they were left their city constitutions and were 
allowed to live on as separate communities with local self-government 
inside the Roman state. The inhabitants of some of these munici- 
palities were admitted at once to full Roman citizenship, while those 
of others were allowed only a part of the rights and privileges of 
citizens. After a period of probation these semicitizens 1 were all 
admitted to the full rights of the city. 

Rome was now fairly started on the way to greatness. She had 
laid the foundations of a state unlike anything the world had seen 
before, and one capable of great expansion. " It was, in short, to the 
liberal policy inaugurated by the statesman of 338 that the Roman 
city-state owed its capacity to unify Italy and make it one people." 2 

45. The Samnites. The most formidable competitors of the 
Romans for supremacy in Italy were the Samnites, rough and war- 
like mountaineers who held the Apennines to the southeast of Latium. 
The successive struggles between these martial races — the ancient 
writers tell of three wars — extended over a period of half a century 
(about 343-290 B.C.), and in their course involved almost all the 
states of Italy. The Romans were final victors. The Samnites were 
forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome, and the states and 
tribes that had formed alliance with them were chastised. Within a 
short time after the subjection of the Samnites almost all the Greek 
cities of southern Italy, except Tarentum, had also come under the 
growing power of the imperial city. 

During the course of these wars with the Samnites and their allies 
Rome had added extensive territories to her domain, and had made 

• * Known as cives sine suffragio (citizens without suffrage), since they could not vote 
in the assemblies at Rome. 

2 Frank, Roman Imperialism (1914), p. 40. 



§46] THE WAR WITH TARENTUM AND PYRRHUS 41 

her hold of these secure by means of colonies and military roads ; for 
it was at this time that Rome began the construction of those remark- 
able highways that formed one of the most impressive features of her 
later empire. The first of these roads, which ran from Rome to Capua, 
was begun in the year 312 b. c. by the censor Appius Claudius, and 
was called after him the Via Appia. 

46. The War with Tarentum and Pyrrhus (282-272 B.C.). Taren- 
tum, a seaport of Calabria, was one of the most opulent of the cities 




Fig. 8. The Appian Way. (From a photograph) 



of Magna Grsecia. Its inhabitants were luxurious in their habits, idle, 
and frivolous, entering into and breaking engagements with careless 
levity. They spent the most of their time in feasting and drinking, in 
lounging in the baths, in attending the theater, and in idle talk on 
the streets. 

The Tarentines having mistreated some Roman prisoners, the 
Roman Senate promptly sent an embassy to Tarentum to demand 
amends. In the theater, in the presence of a great assembly, one of 
the ambassadors was grossly insulted, his toga being befouled by a 
clownish fellow, amidst the approving plaudits of a giddy crowd. 



42 CONQUEST AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY [§46 

The ambassador, raising the soiled garment, said sternly, " Laugh 
now ; but you will weep when this toga is cleansed with blood." 
Rome at once declared war. 

The Tarentines turned to Greece for aid. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus 
and a cousin of Alexander the Great, a restless man, who, as Plutarch 
says, " thought life consisted in troubling others and in being trou- 
bled," and who had an ambition to build up such an empire in the 
West as his famous kinsman had established in the East, responded 
to their entreaties, and crossed over into Italy with an army of Greek 
mercenaries and twenty war elephants. He organized and drilled the 
effeminate Tarentines, and soon felt ready to face the Romans. 

The hostile armies met at Heraclea (280 B.C.). The battle was 
won for Pyrrhus by his war elephants, the sight of which, being 
new to the Romans, caused them to flee from the field in dismay. 
But Pyrrhus had lost thousands of his bravest troops. As he looked 
over the battlefield he is said to have turned to his companions and 
remarked, " Another such victory and I shall be ruined " ; hence 
the phrase, " A Pyrrhic victory." 

The prudence of the victorious Pyrrhus led him to send to the 
Romans proposals of peace. When the Senate hesitated, its resolu- 
tion was fixed by the eloquence of the now old and blind Appius 
Claudius; "Rome," he exclaimed, "shall never treat with a victorious 
foe." The ambassadors were sent back to Pyrrhus with the reply 
that if he wanted peace he must first quit the soil of Italy. 

After a second victory as disastrous as his first, Pyrrhus crossed over 
into Sicily to aid the Greeks there, who were being hard pressed by 
the Carthaginians. At first he was everywhere successful, but finally 
fortune turned against him, and he was glad to escape from the island. 
Recrossing the straits into Italy, he once more engaged the Romans ; 
but at Beneventum he suffered a disastrous defeat (275 B.C.). Leav- 
ing a sufficient force to garrison Tarentum, Pyrrhus now set sail 
for Epirus, " leaving behind him nothing save a brilliant reputation." 
He had scarcely embarked before Tarentum surrendered to the 
Romans (272 B.C.). This virtually ended the struggle for the mastery 
of Italy. Rome was soon mistress of all the peninsula south of the 
streams of the Arnus (Arno) and the Rubicon. 



§47] UNITED ITALY 43 

47. United Italy. We cannot make out clearly just what rights 
and powers Rome exercised over the various cities, tribes, and nations 
which she had brought under her rule. 1 This much, however, is clear. 
She took away from them the right of making war, and thus put 
a stop to the bloody contentions which from time immemorial had 
raged between the tribes and cities of the peninsula. She thus gave 
Italy what, after she had laid her restraining authority upon all the 
peoples of the Mediterranean lands, came to be called the Pax 
Romana (the Roman Peace). 

This political union of Italy paved the way for the social and racial 
unification of the peninsula. The greatest marvel of all history is how 
Rome, embracing at first merely a handful of peasants, could have 
made so much of the ancient world like unto herself in blood, in 
speech, in custom, and in manners. That she did so, that she did 
thus Romanize a large part of the peoples of antiquity, is one of the 
most important matters in the history of the human race. Rome 
accomplished this great feat in large measure by means of her 
system of colonization, which was, in some respects, unlike that of 
any other people in ancient or in modern times. We must make 
ourselves familiar with some of the main features of this unique 
colonial system. 

48. Roman Colonies and Latin Colonies. The colonies that Rome 
established in conquered territories fall into two classes, known as 
Roman colonies and Latin colonies. Roman colonies were made up 
of emigrants, generally three hundred in number, who retained in the 
new settlement all the rights and privileges, both private and public, 
of Roman citizens, though of course some of these rights, as for in- 
stance that of voting in the public assemblies at Rome, could be exer- 
cised by the colonist only through his return to the capital. Such 
colonies were in effect permanent military camps intended to guard 
or to hold in subjection conquered territories. Usually it was some 
conquered city that was occupied by the Roman colonists, the old 
inhabitants either being expelled in whole or in part or reduced to a 

1 We refer here, not to those territories and communities {municipici) that Rome had 
actually incorporated with the Roman domain, which now embraced about one third of 
the peninsula, but to those communities to which was given the name of Italian, allies. 



44 CONQUEST AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY [§48 



subject condition. The colonists in their new homes organized a 
government which was almost an exact imitation of that of Rome, 
and through their own assemblies and their own magistrates man- 
aged all their local affairs. These colonies were, in a word, simply 
suburbs of the mother city. They were in effect just so many minia- 
ture E.omes — centers from which radi- 
ated Roman culture into all the regions 
round about them. 

The Latin colonies were so called, 
not because they were founded by Latin 
settlers, 1 but because their inhabitants 
possessed substantially the same rights 
as the towns of the old Latin League. 
The Latin colonist possessed some of 
the most valuable of the private rights 
of Roman citizens, together with the 
capacity to acquire the suffrage by 
migrating to the capital and taking up 
a permanent residence there, provided 
he left behind in the town whence he 
came sons to take his place. 

There is an analogy between the 
status of a settler in an ancient Latin 
colony and of a settler in a Territory 
of our Union. When a citizen of any 
State migrates to a Territory he loses 
his right of voting in a federal election, just as a Roman citizen in 
becoming a Latin colonist lost his right of voting in the assemblies 
at Rome. Then again, the resident of a Territory has the privilege 
of changing his residence and settling in a State, thereby acquiring 
the federal suffrage, just as the inhabitant of a Latin colony could 
migrate to Rome, and thus acquire the right to vote in the public 
assemblies there. 




Fig. 9. Grotto of Posilipo 

(Near Naples) 

An old Roman tunnel, about half a 

mile in length, still in use on the 

Appian Way 



1 Both Romans and Latins participated in the establishment of these earlier Latin 
colonies, the Roman settlers giving up their Roman citizenship and assuming the 
Latin status. 



§ 48] . ROMAN COLONIES AND LATIN COLONIES 45 

The Latin colonies numbered about thirty at the time of the 
Second Punic War. They were scattered everywhere throughout 
Italy, and formed, in the words of the historian Mommsen, " the real 
buttress of the Roman rule." They were, even to a much greater 
degree than the Roman colonies, active and powerful agents in the 
dissemination of the Roman language, law, and culture. They were 
Rome's chief auxiliary in her great task of making all Italy Roman. 

All these colonies were kept in close touch with the capital by 
means of splendid military roads, the construction of which, as we 
have seen, was begun during the Samnite wars (sect. 45). 

Selections from the Sources. Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus. Livy, ix, 2-1 1 
(the Roman defeat at Caudine Forks) ; x, 28, 29 (the self-sacrifice of Decius 
Mus). Munro's Source Book, pp. 74-77 ; Davis's Readings (Rome), pp. 33—41. 

References (Modern). Mommsen, vol. i, bk. ii, chaps, v-ix. Ihne, vol. i, 
bk. iii, chap, xviii, " Condition of the Roman People before the Beginning of 
the Wars with Carthage." PIeitland, vol. i, chaps, xvi-xx. Duruy, vol. i, 
chaps, xiv-xvii. TlGHE, The Development of the Roman Constitution, chap. v. 
Freeman, The Story of Sicily, chap, xiii, " Pyrrhus in Italy." Pelham, 
Outlines of Roman History, bk. ii, chap. ii. Shuckburgh, History of Rome, 
chaps, x-xv. Plow and Leigh, History of Rome, chaps, xiii-xvi. Reid, The 
Municipalities of the Roman Empire, chaps. i-iii,'iv (first part). 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Was the action of the Roman Senate in the 
affair of the Caudine Forks honorable ? Livy, ix, 2-1 1 ; How and Leigh, His- 
tory of Rome, pp. 108-110. 2. Pales of the Pyrrhic War: Plutarch, Pyrrh?cs. 
3. Phe system employed by the Roman engineers in tunneling mountains : 
Lanciani, Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, pp. 61—62. 



CHAPTER V 
EXPANSION OF ROME BEYOND THE PENINSULA 

I. THE FIRST PUNIC WAR (264-241 B.C.) 

49. Carthage and her Empire. Foremost among the cities 
founded by the Phoenicians upon the different shores of the Medi- 
terranean was Carthage, upon the northern coast of Africa. The 
favorable location of the colony upon one of the best harbors of 
the African coast gave the city a vast and lucrative commerce. At 
the period which we have now reached it had grown into an imperial 
city, covering, with its gardens and suburbs, a district twenty-three 
miles in circuit. It is said to have contained seven hundred thousand 
inhabitants. 

By the time Rome had extended her authority over Italy, Car- 
thage held sway, through peaceful colonization or by force of arms, 
over the northern coast of Africa, and possessed Sardinia as well as 
the larger part of Sicily. She also collected tribute from the natives 
of Corsica and of southern Spain. With all its shores dotted with 
her colonies and fortresses and swept in every direction by her war 
galleys, the western Mediterranean had become a " Phoenician lake," 
in which, as the Carthaginians boasted, no one dared wash his hands 
without their permission. 

The government of Carthage was democratic in theory but oligar- 
chic in fact. Corresponding to the Roman consuls, two magistrates, 
called suffetes, stood at the head of the state. The senate was com- 
posed of the heads of the leading families ; its duties and powers 
were very like those of the Roman Senate. 

50. Rome and Carthage Compared. These two great republics, 
which for more than five centuries had been slowly extending their 
limits and maturing their powers upon the opposite shores of the 

4 6 



§50] ROME AND CARTHAGE COMPARED 47 

Mediterranean, were now about to begin one of the most memorable 
struggles of all antiquity — a duel that was to last, with every vicis- 
situde of fortune, for over one hundred years. 

In material power and resources the two rival cities seemed well 
matched as antagonists ; yet Rome had elements of strength, hidden 
in the character of her citizens and embodied in the principles of her 
government, which Carthage did not possess. 

First, the Carthaginian territories, though of great extent, were 
widely scattered, while the Roman domains were compact and confined 
to a single and easily defended peninsula. 

Again, the subject peoples of Carthage's empire were in race, 
language, and religion mostly alien to their Phoenician conquerors, 
and so were ready, upon the first disaster to the ruling city, to fall 
away from their allegiance. On the other hand, the Latin allies and 
the Italian confederates of Rome were close kin to her, and so 
through natural impulse they for the most part — although not all 
were satisfied with their position in the state — remained loyal to her 
during even the darkest periods of her struggle with her rival. 

But the greatest contrast between the two states appeared in the 
principles upon which they were respectively based. Carthage was a 
despotic oligarchy. The many different races of the Carthaginian 
empire were held in an artificial union by force alone, for the Car- 
thaginians had none of the genius of the Romans for political organ- 
ization and state building. The Roman state, on the other hand, as 
we have learned, was the most wonderful political organism that the 
world had ever seen. It was not yet a nation, but it was rapidly 
growing into one. Every free man within its limits was either a 
citizen of Rome or was on the way to becoming a citizen. Rome 
was already the common fatherland of more than a quarter of a 
million of men. The Roman armies were, in large part, armies of 
citizen soldiers, like those Athenian warriors that fought at Marathon 
and at Salamis ; the armies of Carthage were mainly armies of mer- 
cenaries like those that Xerxes led against the Greek cities. And 
then the Romans, in their long contests with the different races of 
Italy for the mastery of the peninsula, had secured such a training in 
war as perhaps no other people before them ever had. 



48 EXPANSION OF ROME [§51 

As to the naval resources of the two states there existed at the 
beginning of the war no basis for a comparison. The Romans 
were destitute of anything that could be called a war navy, 1 and 
were almost without experience in naval warfare ; while the Cartha- 
ginians possessed the largest and the most splendidly equipped 
fleet that had ever patrolled the waters of the Mediterranean. 




Fig. io. Prow of a Roman Warship. (From an ancient relief) 

The representation shows the arrangement of the tiers of oars in a two-banked ship. In 
just what way the lines of rowers in triremes and quinqueremes were arranged is unknown 

And in another respect Carthage had an immense advantage over 
Rome. She had Hannibal. Rome had some great commanders, but 
she had none like him. 

51. The Beginning of the War. Lying between Italy and the 
coast of Africa is the large island of Sicily. At the commencement 
of the First Punic War, the Carthaginians held possession of all the 
island save a strip of the eastern coast, which was under the sway of 
the Greek city of Syracuse. The Greeks and the Carthaginians had 

1 Polybius (i, 20) says that they did not have a single galley when they first crossed 
over to Sicily. He says they ferried their army across in boats borrowed from the Greek 
cities of southern Italy. 



§52] 



FIRST ROMAN NAVAL VICTORY 



49 



carried on an almost uninterrupted struggle through two centuries for 
the control of the island, but the Romans had not yet set foot upon 
it. In the year 264 B.C., however, on a flimsy pretext of giving pro- 
tection to some friends, the Romans crossed over to the island. That 
act committed them to a career of conquest destined to continue 
till their armies had made the circuit of the Mediterranean lands. 

The Syracusans and the Carthaginians, old 
enemies and rivals though they had been, 
joined their forces against the newcomers. 
The allies were defeated in the first battle, 
and the Roman army obtained a sure foot- 
hold in the island. Hiero, king of Syracuse, 
seeing that he was upon the losing side, for- 
sook the Carthaginians, formed an alliance 
with the Romans, and ever after remained 
their firm friend. 

52. The Romans Gain their First Naval 
Victory (2 60 B.C.). Their experience during 
the past campaigns had shown the Romans 
that if they were to cope successfully with 
the Carthaginians, they must be able to meet 
them upon the sea as well as upon the land, 
so they determined to build a fleet. A Car- 
thaginian galley, tradition says, that had been 
wrecked upon the shores of Italy served as a 
pattern. 1 It is affirmed that within the short 
space of sixty days a growing forest was converted into a fleet of 
one hundred and twenty war galleys. 

The consul C. Duilius was intrusted with the command of the fleet. 
He met the Carthaginian squadron near the city and promontory of 
Mylae, on the northern coast of Sicily. Now, distrusting their ability 
to match the skill of their enemy in naval tactics, the Romans had 




Fig. 11. The Trium- 
phal Column of Dui- 
lius. (A restoration) 

The column was decorated 

with the prows of ships 

captured at Mylae 



t The Greek and Etruscan ships were merely triremes, that is, galleys with three 
banks of oars ; while the Carthaginian ships were quinqueremes, or vessels with five 
rows of oars. The former were unable to cope with the latter, such an advantage did 
these have in their greater weight and height. 



5<D EXPANSION OF ROME [§53 

provided each of their vessels with a drawbridge. As soon as a 
Carthaginian ship came near enough to a Roman vessel, this 
gangway was allowed to fall upon the approaching galley ; and the 
Roman soldiers, rushing along the bridge, were soon engaged in a 
hand-to-hand conflict with their enemies, in which species of encoun- 
ter the former were unequaled. The result was a complete victory 
for the Romans. It inspired in the more sanguine splendid visions 
of maritime command and glory. The Mediterranean should speedily 
become a Roman lake in which no vessel might float without the 
consent of Rome. 

53. Regulus and the Carthaginian Embassy. The Romans now 
resolved to carry the war into Africa. At first they were successful 
in all their operations there. Finally, however, Regulus, one of the 
consuls who led the army of invasion, suffered a severe defeat and 
was made prisoner. A fleet which was sent to bear away the rem- 
nants of the shattered army was wrecked in a terrific storm off the 
coast of Sicily. A second expedition to Africa ended in like disaster 
to the Romans, with the loss of another great fleet. For a few years 
the Romans refrained from tempting again the hostile powers of the 
sea, and Sicily became once more the battle-ground of the contend- 
ing rivals. At last, having lost a great battle (battle of Panormus, 
251 B.C.), the Carthaginians became dispirited, and sent an embassy 
to Rome to negotiate for peace. Among the commissioners was 
Regulus, who, since his capture five years before, had been held a 
prisoner in Africa. Before leaving Carthage he had promised to 
return if the embassy were unsuccessful. For the sake of his own 
release, the Carthaginians supposed he would counsel peace, or at 
least urge an exchange of prisoners. But it is related that, upon 
arrival at Rome, he counseled war instead of peace, at the same time 
revealing to the Senate the enfeebled condition of Carthage. As to 
the exchange of prisoners, he said, " Let those who have surrendered 
when they ought to have died, die in the land which has witnessed 
their disgrace." 

The Roman Senate, following his counsel, rejected all the pro- 
posals of the embassy ; and Regulus, in spite of the tears and en- 
treaties of his wife and friends, turned away from Rome, and set 



54] 



LOSS OF TWO MORE ROMAN FLEETS 



51 



out for Carthage, to meet whatever fate the Carthaginians, in their 
disappointment and anger, might plan for him. The tradition affirms 
that he was put to a cruel death. 

54. Loss of Two More Roman Fleets. After the failure of the 
Carthaginian embassy the war went on for several years by land and 
by sea with many vicissitudes. At last, on the coast of Sicily, one of 
the consuls, Claudius, met with an overwhelming defeat. Almost a 
hundred vessels of his fleet 

were lost. The disaster caused 
the greatest alarm at Rome. 
Superstition increased the fears 
of the people. It was reported 
that just before the battle, 
when the auspices were being 
taken and the sacred chickens 
would not eat, Claudius had 
given orders to have them 
thrown into the sea, irrever- 
ently remarking, " At any rate, 
they shall drink." Imagina- 
tion was free to depict what 
further evils the offended gods 
might inflict upon the Roman 
state. 

The gloomiest forebodings 
might have found justification 

in subsequent events. The other consul just now met with a great 
disaster. He was proceeding along the southern coast of Sicily with 
a fleet of over nine hundred war galleys and transports, when a 
severe storm arising, the squadron was beaten to pieces upon the 
rocks. Not a single ship escaped. 

55. Close of the First Punic War (241 B.C.). The war had now 
lasted for fifteen years. Four Roman fleets had been destroyed, three 
of which had been sunk or broken to pieces by storms. It was several 
years before the Romans regained sufficient courage again to commit 
their fortune to the element that had been so unfriendly to them. 




Fig. 12. Augur's Birds. (After a 
drawing based on an ancient relief) 

The knowledge sought was gained by observ- 
ing the birds' manner of taking their food. 
Their refusal to eat was an unlucky omen 



52 EXPANSION OF ROME [§56 

A fleet of two hundred vessels was then built and equipped, entirely 
by private subscription, and intrusted to the command of the consul 
Catulus. He met the Carthaginian fleet near the /Egatian Islands, 
and inflicted upon it a decisive defeat (241 B.C.). 

The Carthaginians now sued for peace. A treaty was at length 
arranged, the terms of which required that Carthage should give up 
all claims to the island of Sicily, surrender all her prisoners, and pay 
an indemnity of thirty-two hundred talents (about four million dollars), 
one third of which was to be paid down, and the balance in ten yearly 
payments. Thus ended, after a continuance of twenty-four years, the 
first great struggle between Carthage and Rome. 

One important result of the war was the crippling of the sea 
power of the Phoenician race, which from time immemorial had been 
a most prominent factor in the history of the Mediterranean lands, 
and the giving virtually of the control of the sea into the hands 
of the Romans. 

II. ROME AND CARTHAGE BETWEEN THE FIRST AND 
THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (241-218 b.c.) 

56. The First Roman Province and the Beginning of the Pro- 
vincial System (241 B.C.). For the twenty-three years following the 
close of the first struggle between Rome and Carthage the two rivals 
strained every power and taxed every resource in preparation for a 
renewal of the contest. 

The Romans settled the affairs of Sicily, organizing all of it, save 
the lands in the eastern part belonging to Syracuse, as a province of 
the Republic. 1 This was the first Roman province, but as the imperial 
city extended her conquests, her provincial possessions increased in 
number and size until they formed at last a perfect cordon about the 
Mediterranean. Each province was governed by a magistrate sent 
out from the capital. This officer exercised both civil and military 
authority, with power of life and death over the natives. Each 
province also paid an annual tribute in kind, or a money tax, to 
Rome, something that had never been exacted of the Italian allies. 

1 The government established in 241 B.C. was temporary; it was made regular and 
permanent in 227 B.C. 



§57] ROME ACQUIRES SARDINIA AND CORSICA 53 

This Roman provincial system presented a sharp contrast to that 
liberal system of federation and incorporation that formed the very 
corner stone of the Roman power in Italy. There Rome had made 
all, or substantially all, of the conquered peoples either citizens or 
close confederates. Against the provincials she not only closed the 
gates of the city but denied to the most of them all but the mere 
na?ne of allies. She made them virtually her subjects, and admin- 
istered their affairs not in their interest but in her own. This illiberal 
policy contributed largely, as we shall learn, to the undoing of the 
Roman Republic. 

57. Rome Acquires Sardinia and Corsica (227 B.C.). The first 
acquisition by the Romans of tribute-paying lands beyond the penin- 
sula seems to have created in them an insatiable ambition for foreign 
conquests. They soon found a pretext for seizing' the island of 
Sardinia, the most ancient, and, after Sicily, the most prized of the 
possessions of the Carthaginians. This island in connection with 
Corsica, which was also seized, was formed into a Roman province 
(227 B.C.). With her hands upon these islands, the authority of Rome 
in the Western or Tuscan Sea was supreme. 1 

58. War with the Gauls ; Roman Authority Extended to the 
Alps. In the north, during this same period, Roman authority was 
extended from the Apennines and the Rubicon to the foot of the' 
Alps. Alarmed at the advance of the Romans, who were pushing 
northward their great military road called the Flaminian Way, Gallic 
tribes on both sides the Alps gathered for . an assault upon Rome. 
Intelligence of this movement among the northern tribes threw all 
Italy into a fever of excitement. At Rome the terror was great ; for 
not yet had died out of memory what the city had. once suffered 
at the hands of the ancestors of these same barbarians (sect. 40). 
An ancient prediction, found in the Sibylline Books, declared that a 

1 In a more legitimate way the Romans extended their influence over the seas that 
wash the eastern shores of Italy. For a long time the Adriatic and Ionian waters had 
been infested with Illyrian pirates. These buccaneers troubled not only the towns along 
the shores of Greece but were even so bold as to make descents upon the Italian coasts. 
The Roman fleet chased these corsairs from the Adriatic, and captured several of their 
strongholds. Rome now assumed a sort of protectorate over the Greek cities of the 
Adriatic coast. This was her first step in the path that was to lead her to absolute 
supremacy in Greece and throughout all the East. 



54 EXPANSION OF ROME [§59 

portion of Roman territory must needs be occupied by Gauls. Hop- 
ing sufficiently to fulfill the prophecy and satisfy fate, the Roman 
Senate caused two Gauls to be buried alive in one of the public 
squares of the capital. 

Meanwhile the barbarians had advanced into Etruria, ravaging the 
country as they moved southward. There they were surrounded by 
the Roman armies and almost annihilated (225 B.C.). The Romans, 
taking advantage of this victory, pushed on into the plains of the Po, 
captured the city now known as Milan, and extended their authority 
to the foothills of the Alps. To guard the new territory two Latin 
colonies, Placentia and Cremona, were established upon the opposite 
banks of the Po. The Gauls, thus reduced to subjection, were of 
course restless and resentful, and were very ready to embrace the 
cause of Hannibal when, a few years after this, he descended from 
the Alps and appeared among them as a deliverer. 

59. Carthage in the Truceless War (241-237 B.C.). Scarcely had 
peace been concluded with Rome at the end of the First Punic War, 
before Carthage was plunged into a still deadlier struggle, which for 
a time threatened her very existence. Her mercenary troops, upon 
their return from Sicily, revolted on account of being unpaid. Their 
appeal to the native tribes of Africa was answered by a general 
uprising throughout the dependencies of Carthage. The extent of 
the revolt shows how hated was the rule of the great capital over 
her subject states. The war was unspeakably bitter and cruel. It is 
known in history as " the Truceless War." But the genius of the 
great Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca at last triumphed, and 
the authority of Carthage was everywhere restored. 

60. The Carthaginians in Spain. After the disastrous ending of 
the First Punic War, the Carthaginians sought to repair their losses 
by new conquests in Spain. Hamilcar Barca was sent over into that 
country, and for nine years he devoted his commanding genius to 
organizing the different Iberian tribes into a compact state, and to 
developing the rich gold and silver mines of the southern part of the 
peninsula. He fell in battle 228 B.C. 

As a rule, genius is not transmitted ; but in the Barcine family the 
rule was broken, and the rare genius of Hamilcar reappeared in his 



§61] 



HANNIBAL'S VOW 



55 



sons, whom he himself, it is said, was fond of calling the " lion's 
brood." As Hannibal, the eldest, was only nineteen at the time of 
his father's death, and thus too young to assume command, Hamil- 
car was succeeded by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal. 

61. Hannibal's Vow; he Attacks Saguntum. Upon the death of 
Hasdrubal, which occurred 221 B.C., Hannibal, now twenty-six years 
of age, was by the unanimous voice of the army called to be its leader. 
When a child of nine years he had been led by his father to the altar, 
and there, with his hands upon the sacrifice, the little boy had sworn 
eternal hatred to the Roman race. He was driven on to his gigantic 
undertakings and to his hard fate not 
only by the restless fires of his warlike 
genius but, as he himself declared, by 
the sacred obligations of a vow that 
could not be broken. 

In two years Hannibal extended the 
Carthaginian power to the Ebro. Sagun- 
tum, a native city upon the east coast of 
Spain, alone remained unsubdued. The 
Romans, who were jealously watching 
affairs in the peninsula, had entered into 
an alliance with this city, and taken it, 
with some Greek cities at the foot of the 
Pyrenees, under their protection. Han- 
nibal laid siege to the place in the spring of 219 b.c. The Roman 
Senate sent messengers to him forbidding him to make war upon a 
city that was an ally of the Roman people ; but Hannibal, disregard- 
ing their remonstrances, continued the siege, and after an investment 
of eight months gained possession of the town. 

The Romans now sent commissioners to Carthage to demand of 
the senate that they give up Hannibal to them, and by so doing 
repudiate the act of their general. The Carthaginians hesitated. 
Then Quintus Fabius, chief of the embassy, gathering up his toga, 
said : " I carry here peace and war ; choose, men of Carthage, which 
ye will have." " Give us whichever ye will," was the reply. " War, 
then," said Fabius, dropping his toga. 




Fig. 13. Hannibal 



56 



EXPANSION OF ROME 



[§62 



III. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (218-201 B.C.) 

62. Hannibal's Passage of the Alps. The Carthaginian empire 
was now all astir with preparations for the mighty struggle. Hannibal 
was the life and soul of every movement. His bold plan was to cross 
the Pyrenees and the Alps and descend upon Rome from the north. 
Early in the spring of 218 B.C., he set out from New Carthage with 
an army numbering about one hundred thousand men and including 
thirty-seven war elephants. Traversing northern Spain and crossing 




The Route of Hannibal 



the Pyrenees and the Rhone, he reached the foothills of the Alps, 
probably under the pass known to-day as the Little St. Bernard. 
The season was already far advanced, — it was October, — and snow 
was falling upon the higher portions of the trail, so that the passage 
of the mountains was accomplished only after severe toil and losses. 
At length the thinned columns, numbering less than thirty thousand 
men, issued from the denies of the foothills upon the plains of 
the Po. This was the pitiable force with which Hannibal proposed 
to attack the Roman state — a state that at this time had on its 
levy lists over seven hundred thousand foot soldiers and seventy 
thousand horse. 



§63] FABIUS "THE DELAYER" 57 

63. Fabius "the Delayer." In three successive battles in northern 
Italy and Etruria, 1 the Romans suffered disastrous defeat, and two 
great Roman armies were almost annihilated. The way to Rome was 
now open. Believing that Hannibal would march directly upon the 
capital, the Senate caused the bridges that spanned the Tiber to be 
destroyed, and appointed Fabius Maximus dictator. But Hannibal 
did not deem it wise to throw his troops against the walls of Rome. 
Crossing the Apennines, he pressed eastward to the Adriatic, and 
then marched southward into Apulia. The fate of Rome was in the 
hands of Fabius. Should he risk a battle and lose it, everything 
would be lost. He determined to adopt a more prudent policy — to 
follow and annoy with his small force the Carthaginian army, but to 
refuse all proffers of battle. Thus time would be gained for raising 
a new army and perfecting measures for the public defense. 

In every possible way Hannibal endeavored to draw his enemy 
into an engagement. He ravaged the fields far and wide and fired 
the homesteads of the Italians, in order to force Fabius to fight in 
their defense. The soldiers of the dictator began to murmur. They 
called him Citnctator, "the Delayer." But nothing moved him from 
the steady pursuit of the policy which he clearly saw was the only 
prudent one to follow. 

64. The Battle of Cannae (216B.C.). The time gained by Fabius 
had enabled the Romans to raise and discipline an army that might 
hope to engage successfully the Carthaginian forces. Early in the 
summer of the year 216 B.C. these new levies, numbering eight} 7 
thousand men, under the command of the recently chosen consuls 
Paulus and Varro, confronted the army of Hannibal, amounting to 
not more than half that number, at Cannae, on the banks of the 
Aufidus, in Apulia. It was the largest army Rome had ever gathered 
on anv battlefield. Through the skillful maneuvers of Hannibal, the 
Romans were completely surrounded and huddled together in a help- 
less mass ; then thev were cut down bv the Numidian cavalry. From 
fort\- to seventy 7 thousand are said to have been slain ; 2 a few thousand 

1 Battles of the Ticinus and the Trebia (218 B.C.), and Lake Trasimenus (217 B.C.). 

2 Polybius (hi, 117) places the killed at 70,000 and the prisoners at io,oco ; Livy 
(xxii. 49) puts the number of the slain at 42,700. 



58 EXPANSION OF ROME [§65 

were taken prisoners ; only a handful escaped. The slaughter was 
so great that, according to Livy, when Mago, a brother of Hannibal, 
carried the news of the victory to Carthage, he, in confirmation of 
the intelligence, poured out on the floor of the senate house nearly a 
peck of gold rings taken from the fingers of Roman knights. 

65. Events after the Battle of Cannae. The awful news flew to 
Rome. Consternation and despair seized the people. The city would 
have been emptied of its population had not the Senate ordered the 
gates to be closed. Never did that body display greater calmness, 
wisdom, and resolution. Little by little the panic was allayed. Meas- 
ures were concerted for the defense of the capital, as it was expected 
that Hannibal would immediately march upon the city. Swift horse- 
men were sent out along the Appian Way to gather information of 
the conqueror's movements, and to learn, as Livy pathetically ex- 
presses it, "whether the immortal gods, out of pity to the empire, 
had left any remnant of the Roman name." 

But Hannibal did not deem it prudent to fight the Romans behind 
their walls. He even sent an embassy to Rome to offer terms of 
peace. The Senate would not even permit the ambassadors to enter 
the gates, displaying in this what Polybius calls " the noble peculi- 
arity," inherited from their ancestors, of constancy, unyielding firm- 
ness, and haughtiness in the face of defeat. Hardly less disappointed 
was Hannibal in the temper of the Roman confederates. All the 
allies of the Latin name adhered to Rome through all these trying 
times with unshaken loyalty. Some tribes in the south of Italy, how- 
ever, now went over to the Carthaginians. Capua also seceded from 
Rome and entered into an alliance with Hannibal, who quartered his 
army for the winter following the battle of Cannae in the luxurious 
city. 1 A little later Syracuse also was lost to Rome. 

66. The Fall of Syracuse (212 B.C.) and of Capua (211 B.C.). While 
Hannibal was resting in Capua and awaiting reinforcements, Rome 
was busy raising and equipping new levies to take the place of the 

1 Hannibal's soldiers, it is said (Livy, xxiii, 18), passing the winter in a round of 
feasting, drinking, and indulgences of every kind, were fatally enervated in both body 
and mind by the influences of the Sybarite capital ; whence the phrase " Capuan ease," 
meaning indolent self-indulgence which impairs one's physical and moral powers. 



§67] BATTLE OF THE METAURUS 59 

legions lost at Cannae. The first task to be undertaken was the 
chastisement of Syracuse for its desertion of the Roman alliance. 
The distinguished general, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, called " the 
Sword of Rome," was intrusted with this commission. In the year 
214 b.c. he laid siege to the city. For three years it held out against 
the Roman forces. It is said that Archimedes, the great mathematician, 
rendered valuable aid to the besieged with curious and powerful 
engines contrived by his genius. But the city fell at last and was 
given over to sack and pillage. Innumerable pictures were carried to 
Rome there to adorn the city and the homes of the rich. 

Capua must next be punished for opening its gates and extending 
its hospitalities to the enemies of Rome. A line of circumvallation 
was drawn about the city, and two Roman armies held it in close 
siege. Hannibal endeavored to create a diversion in favor of his 
allies by making a dash on Rome, — legend says that he rang a 
defiant lance against one of the city gates, — but he failed to draw 
the legions from before Capua. The city soon fell, and paid the 
penalty that Rome never failed to inflict upon an unfaithful ally. 
The chief men of the place were put to death and a large part of 
the inhabitants sold as slaves (211 b.c). 

67. Hasdrubal Attempts to Carry Aid to his Brother ; Battle of 
the Metaurus (207 B.C.). During all the years Hannibal was waging 
war in Italy, his brother Hasdrubal was carrying on a desperate 
struggle with the Roman armies in Spain. At length he determined 
to leave the conduct of the war in that country to others and go to 
the relief of his brother, who was sadly in need of aid. He followed 
the same route that had been taken by Hannibal, and in the year 
207 B.C. descended from the Alps upon the plains of northern Italy. 
Thence he advanced southward, while Hannibal moved northward 
from Bruttium to join him. Rome made a supreme effort to prevent 
the junction of the armies of the two brothers. At the river Metaurus, 
Hasdrubal's march was blocked by a large Roman army. Here his 
forces were cut to pieces, and he himself was slain (207 B.C.). His 
head was severed from his body and sent to Hannibal. Upon recog- 
nizing the features of his brother, Hannibal, it is said, exclaimed sadly, 
" Carthage, I read thy fate." 



6o 



EXPANSION OF ROME 



[§68 



68. The Romans Carry the War into Africa ; Battle of Zama 
(202 B.C.). Hannibal now drew back into the rocky peninsula of Brut- 
tium. There he faced the Romans like a lion at bay. No one dared 
attack him. It was resolved to carry the war into Africa, in hopes 
that the Carthaginians would be forced to call their great commander 
out of Italy to the defense of Carthage. Publius Cornelius Scipio led 
the army of invasion. He had not been long in Africa before the 
Carthaginian senate sent for Hannibal. At Zama, not far from Car- 
thage, the hostile armies 
met. Hannibal here suf- 
fered his first and last 
defeat (202 B.C.). 

69. The Close of the 
War (201 B.C.). Car- 
thage was now com- 
pletely exhausted, and 
sued for peace. The 
terms of the treaty were 
much severer than those 
imposed upon the city 
at the end of the First 
Punic War. She was 
required to give up all 
claims to Spain and the 
islands of the Mediterra- 
nean ; to surrender her 
war elephants, and all her ships of war save ten galleys ; to pay an 
indemnity of four thousand talents (about five million dollars) at 
once, and two hundred talents annually for fifty years ; and not, 
under any circumstances, to make war upon an ally of Rome. Five 
hundred of the costly Phoenician war galleys were towed out of the 
harbor of Carthage and burned in full sight of the citizens. 1 




X 



Fig. 14. Publius Cornelius Scipio 

(Africanus) 



1 Some time after the close of the Second Punic War, the Romans, persuading them- 
selves that Hannibal was preparing Carthage for another war, demanded his surrender 
by the Carthaginians. He fled to Syria, and thence to Asia Minor, where, to avoid 
capture, he committed suicide by means of poison (183 B.C.). 



§70] EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON ITALY 6 1 

Such was the end of the Hannibalic War, as it was called by the 
Romans. Scipio was accorded a grand triumph at Rome and in 
honor of his achievements given the surname Africanus. 

70. Effects of the War on Italy. Italy never entirely recovered 
from the effects of the Hannibalic War. Three hundred thousand 
Roman citizens are said to have been slain in battle. Agriculture 
in some districts was almost ruined. The peasantry had been torn 
from the soil and driven within the walled towns. The slave class 
had increased, and the estates of the great landowners had constantly 
grown in size, and absorbed the little holdings of the ruined peasants. 
In thus destroying the Italian peasantry, Hannibal's invasion and long 
occupancy of the peninsula did much to aggravate those economic 
evils which even before this time were at work undermining the 
earlier sound life of the Romans and filling Italy with a numerous 
and dangerous class of homeless and discontented men. 

IV. EVENTS BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THE THIRD 
PUNIC WAR (201-146 B.C.) 

71. Introductory. The terms imposed upon Carthage at the end 
of the Second Punic War left Rome mistress of the western Mediter- 
ranean. During the eventful half century that elapsed between the 
close of that struggle and the breaking out of the Third Punic War, 
her authority became supreme also in the eastern Mediterranean. 
In another place, while narrating the fortunes of the most important 
states into which the great empire of Alexander was broken at his 
death, we followed their several histories until, one after another, 
they fell beneath the arms of Rome, and were absorbed into her 
growing dominions. 1 We shall therefore in this place speak of these 
states only in the briefest manner, merely indicating the connection 
of their affairs with the series of events which mark the advance of 
Rome to universal empire. Our main interest in these events will be 
in observing how Rome became ever more and more involved in the 
affairs of the East, and in noting the growing enthusiasm of the 
Romans for things Hellenic. 

1 See Eastern Nations and Greece (2nd Rev. Ed.), chap. xxvi. 



62 EXPANSION OF ROME [§72 

72. The Second Macedonian War 1 (200-197 B.C.) ; "the Restora- 
tion of Greek Freedom." Rome came first into hostile relations with 
Macedonia. During the Second Punic War Philip V of that kingdom 
had entered into an alliance with Hannibal. He was now troubling 
the Greek cities. They appealed to Rome, whose prestige was now 
great, for protection. Rome, moved both by fear of what Philip 
might do and by a genuine admiration for the great past of Greece, 
listened favorably to the appeal. Such was the prelude to what is 
known as the Second Macedonian War. 

In the third year of the war an army under Flamininus was sent 
into Greece, and on the plains of Cynoscephalae, in Thessaly, the 
supple Roman legion demonstrated its superiority over the rigid 
Macedonian phalanx by subjecting Philip to a most disastrous defeat 
(197 B.C.). The king was forced to give up all his conquests, and all 
the Greek cities that he had been holding in subjection were declared 
free. The edict of emancipation was read by a herald to the Greeks 
assembled at Corinth for the celebration of the Isthmian games. It 
ran thus : " The Roman people and Senate and Flamininus their 
general . . . order that Greece shall be free from foreign garrisons, 
shall not be subject to tribute, and shall live under her own customs 
and laws." 

The decree was received with the greatest enthusiasm and rejoicing. 
" A shout was raised," says Plutarch, " that was heard as far as the 
sea coast." Flamininus was hailed as the " Restorer of Greek Lib- 
erties." But unfortunately the Greeks had lost all capacity for free- 
dom and self-government, and the anarchy into which their affairs 
soon fell afforded the Romans a valid excuse for extending their rule 
over all Greece. 

73. War against Antiochus the Great of Syria (192-189 B.C.). 
Antiochus the Great of Syria had at this time not only made impor- 
tant conquests in Asia Minor but had even carried his arms into 
Europe. He was at this moment in Greece. The object of his pres- 
ence in these regions, he declared, was to give liberty to the Greek 
cities. But the Greeks, as Plutarch remarks, were at this particular 

1 The First Macedonian War (215-206 B.C.) took place during the Second Punic 
War and was an episode of that struggle. 



§74] THE THIRD MACEDONIAN WAR 63 

time in no need of a liberator, since they had just been delivered 
from the Macedonians by the Romans. 

Just as soon as intelligence was carried to Italy that the Syrian 
king was in Greece, at the head of an army, the legions of the 
Republic were set in motion. Some reverses caused Antiochus to 
retreat in haste across the sea to Asia, whither he was followed by 
the Romans. At Magnesia, Antiochus was overthrown, and much 
of Asia Minor fell into the hands of the Romans. Not yet pre- 
pared to maintain provinces so remote from the Tiber, the Senate 
conferred a great part of the new territory upon their " friend and 
ally," Eumenes, king of Pergamum. 

74. The Third Macedonian War (171-168 B.C.). And now Mace- 
donia, under the leadership of Perseus, son of Philip V, was again 
in war with Rome. On the memorable field of Pydna (168 B.C.) the 
Roman consul, vEmilius Paulus, crushed the Macedonian, power for- 
ever. The country was broken up into four states, and a little later 
these were organized as a Roman province. The great role which 
Macedonia, as an independent state, had played in history was ended. 

But the battle of Pydna constitutes a great landmark not merely 
in the history of Macedonia : it forms a landmark in universal history 
as well. It was one of the decisive battles fought by the Romans in 
their struggle for the dominion of the world. The last great power 
in the East was here broken. 1 The Roman Senate was henceforth 
recognized by the whole civilized world as the source and fountain of 
supreme political wisdom and authority. We have yet to record many 
campaigns of the Roman legions ; but these, if we except the cam- 
paigns against the Pontic king Mithradates the Great, were efforts 
to suppress revolt among dependent or semivassal states, or were 
expeditions aimed at barbarian tribes that skirted the Roman 
dominions. 

75. The Achaean War and the Destruction of Corinth (i46 B.C.). 
During the third war between Rome and Macedonia, a party in 
the cities of the Achaean League had shown themselves lukewarm 
in their friendship for Rome. Consequently, after the battle of Pydna, 

1 Mithradates the Great had not yet appeared to dispute with Rome the sovereignty 
of the Orient (sect. 95). 



64 EXPANSION OF ROME [§76 

the Romans collected a thousand prominent citizens of these federated 
cities and transported them to Italy, where they were to stand trial 
for alleged unfriendliness towards Rome. They were never tried, 
however, but for seventeen years were held as hostages for the good 
conduct of their countrymen at home. Among these exiles was the 
celebrated historian Polybius, who wrote an account of all these 
events which we are now narrating and which mark the advance 
of Rome to the sovereignty of the world. 

At the end of the period named, the Roman Senate, in an indul- 
gent mood, gave the survivors permission to return home. They 
went back burning with a sense of wrong, and their presence in the 
home cities doubtless added to the intensity of the ill feeling that 
had been growing against Rome. The people of Corinth particularly 
displayed the most unreasonable and vehement hostility toward the 
Romans. There could be but one issue of this foolish conduct, and 
that was war with Rome. 

This came in the year 147 B.C. Corinth was soon in the hands of 
the Romans. The men were killed, and the women and children sold 
into slavery. Much of the booty was sold on the spot at public 
auction. Numerous works of art — invaluable statues and paintings, 
with which the city was crowded — were laid aside to be transported 
to Rome, but a large part of the rich art treasures of the city must 
have been destroyed by the rude and unappreciative soldiers. Polybius, 
who was an eye-witness of the sack of the city, himself saw groups 
of soldiers using priceless paintings as boards on which to play their 
games of dice. 

The despoiled city, in obedience to the command of the Roman 
Senate, was given up to the flames, its walls were leveled, and the 
very ground on which the city had stood was accursed. Thus fell 
the brilliant city of Corinth, the " last precious ornament of the 
Grecian land once so rich in cities." 1 

76. The General Effect upon Rome of her Conquest of the East. 
In entering Greece the Romans had entered the homeland of Greek 
culture, with which they had first come in close contact in Magna 

1 At a later period, Greece, under the name of Achcea, was reduced to the status of 
a province and joined to Macedonia. 



§ 77] CATO THE CENSOR 65 

Graecia. This culture was in many respects vastly superior to their 
own, and for this reason it exerted a profound influence upon life 
and thought at Rome. Many among the Romans seem to have con- 
ceived a sudden contempt for everything Roman, as something pro- 
vincial and old-fashioned, and as suddenly to have become infatuated 
with everything Greek. Greek manners and customs, Greek modes 
of education, and Greek literature and philosophy became the fashion 
at Rome, so that Roman society seemed in a fair way of becoming 
Hellenized. And to a certain degree this did take place : Greece 
captive led enthralled her captor. So many and so important were 
the elements of Greek culture which in the process of time were 
taken up and absorbed by the Romans that there ceased to be such 
a thing in the world as a pure Latin civilization. We recognize this 
intimate blending of the cultures of the two great peoples of classical 
antiquity when we speak of the civilization of the later Roman Empire 
as being Graeco-Roman. 

But along with the many helpful elements of culture which the 
Romans received from the East, they received also many germs of 
great social and moral evils. Life in Greece and in the Orient had 
become degenerate and corrupt. Close communication with this 
society, in union with other influences which we shall notice later, cor- 
rupted life at Rome. " To learn Greek is to learn knavery " became 
a proverb. The simplicity and frugality of the earlier times were 
replaced by oriental extravagance, luxury, and dissoluteness. Evi- 
dences of this decline in the moral life of the Romans, the presage 
of the downfall of the Republic, will multiply as we advance in the 
history of the years following the destruction of Corinth. 

77. Cato the Censor. One of the most noted of the Romans of 
this time was Marcus Porcius Cato (surnamed the Censor), 232- 
1 47 b. c. His active life covered the whole of the long period — the 
chief events of which we have just been narrating — which makes up 
the interval between the Second and the Third Punic War. Indeed, 
Cato as a young man fought in the Hannibalic War, and as an old 
counselor did more than any other person to bring on the third war, 
which resulted in the destruction of Carthage. His life is a mirror 
in which is reflected the life of three generations at Rome. 



66 EXPANSION OF ROME [§77 

Cato was born the son of a peasant at Tusculum, in Latium. 
From his father he received as an inheritance a scanty farm in the 
Sabine country. Near by were the cottage and farm of the celebrated 
Roman commander Manius Curius Dentatus, one of the popular 
heroes of the Samnite wars, of whom tradition related that, when 
the Samnites on one occasion sought to bribe him, they found him 
cooking turnips, and wanting nothing that they could give him. This 
worthy old Roman, Cato took as his model. 

As we have seen, at just this time Greek ideas and customs were 
being introduced at Rome. Cato set his' face like a flint against all 
these innovations. He did everything in his power to cast discredit 
and contempt upon everything Greek. He visited Athens and made 
a speech to the people ; but instead of addressing the Athenians in 
their own language, which he could speak well enough, he talked to 
them in Latin, simply in order, Plutarch says, to rebuke those of his 
countrymen who affected to regard the Greek language as better 
than the Roman. He told the Romans that Greek education and 
Greek literature and philosophy would bring their country to ruin. 
He wished to see all the Greek teachers of philosophy sent back 
home. He refused to allow his little son to be taught by a Greek 
slave, as was coming to be the custom in the leading Roman families, 
but he himself attended carefully to the education of the boy. 

One of the most unattractive, and, indeed, to us, repellent, sides of 
Cato's character is revealed in his treatment of his slaves. He looked 
upon them precisely as so much live stock, raising them and dis- 
posing of them just as though they were cattle. When a slave became 
old or worn out he sold him, and recommended such a course to 
others on the ground of its economy. 

But notwithstanding all of Cato's faults and shortcomings his char- 
acter was, according to Roman ideals, noble and admirable, and his 
life and services, especially those which he rendered the state as 
censor, were approved and appreciated by his fellow-citizens, who set 
up in his honor a statue with this inscription : " This statue was 
erected to Cato because when censor, finding the state of Rome cor- 
rupt and degenerate, he, by introducing wise regulations and virtuous 
discipline, restored it." 



§ 78] CARTHAGE SHOULD BE DESTROYED 67 

V. THE THIRD PUNIC WAR (149-146 b.c.) 

78. ''Carthage should be Destroyed." The same year that Rome 
destroyed Corinth she also blotted from the face of the earth her 
great rival Carthage. It will be recalled that one of the conditions 
imposed upon the city at the close of the Second Punic War was 
that she should under no circumstances engage in war with an ally 
of Rome (sect. 69). Taking advantage of the helpless condition of 
Carthage, Masinissa, king of Numidia and an ally of Rome, began to 
make depredations upon her territories. Carthage appealed to Rome 
for protection. The envoys sent to Africa by the Senate to settle 
the dispute, unfairly adjudged every point in favor of the robber 
Masinissa. 

Chief of one of the embassies sent out was Marcus Cato the 
Censor. When he saw the prosperity of Carthage — her immense 
trade, which crowded her harbor with ships, and the country for 
miles back of the city a beautiful landscape of gardens and villas 
— he was amazed at the growing power and wealth of the city, and 
returned home convinced that the safety of Rome demanded the 
destruction of her rival. All of his addresses after this — no matter 
on what subject — he is said invariably to have closed with the decla- 
ration, " Moreover, Carthage should be destroyed." Better advice was 
given by Publius Scipio, who, it is said, in opposition to Cato, ended all 
his speeches with the words, "Moreover, Carthage should be let alone." 

79. Roman Perfidy. A pretext for destroying the city was not 
long wanting. In 150 B.C. the Carthaginians, when Masinissa made 
another attack upon their territory, instead of calling upon Rome, 
from which source experience had taught them they could hope for 
neither aid nor justice, gathered an army with the resolution of 
defending themselves. Their forces, however were defeated by the 
Numidians and sent beneath the yoke. 

In entering upon this war Carthage had broken the conditions 
of the last treaty. The Carthaginian senate, in great anxiety, now 
sent an embassy to Italy to offer any reparation the Romans might 
demand. They were told that if they would give three hundred hos- 
tages, children of the noblest Carthaginian families, the independence 



68 EXPANSION OF ROME [§80 

of their city should be respected. They eagerly complied with this 
demand. But no sooner were these hostages in the hands of the 
Romans than the consular armies, thus secured against attack, crossed 
from Sicily into Africa, and disembarked at Utica, only ten miles from 
Carthage. 

The Carthaginians were now commanded to give up all their arms. 
Still hoping to win their enemy to clemency, they complied with this 
demand also. Then the consuls made known the final decree of the 
Roman Senate — " That Carthage must be destroyed, but that the 
inhabitants might build a new city, provided it were located ten miles 
from the coast." 

When this resolution of the Senate was announced to the Cartha- 
ginians and they realized the baseness and perfidy of their enemy, 
a cry of indignation and despair burst from the betrayed city. 

80. The Carthaginians Prepare to Defend their City. It was 
resolved to resist to the bitter end the execution of the cruel decree. 
The gates of the city were closed. Men, women, and children set 
to work and labored day and night manufacturing arms. The entire 
city was converted into one great workshop. Statues, vases, the uten- 
sils of the home, and the sacred vessels of the temples were melted 
down for weapons. Material was torn from the buildings of the city 
for the construction of military engines. The women cut off their 
hair and braided it into strings for the catapults. By such labor 
and through such sacrifices the city was soon put in a state to 
withstand a siege. 

When the Romans advanced to take possession of the place, they 
were astonished to find the people they had just now. so treacherously 
disarmed, with weapons in their hands, manning the walls of their 
capital and ready to bid them defiance. 

81. The Destruction of Carthage (146 B.C.). For four years the 
city held out against the Roman army. At length the consul Scipio 
^Emilianus 1 succeeded in taking it by storm. When resistance ceased 
only fifty thousand men, women, and children, out of a population of 
several hundred thousand, remained to be made prisoners. The city 

1 Publius Cornelius Scipio /Emilianus, grandson by adoption of Scipio Africanus, the 
conqueror of Hannibal. After his conquest of Carthage he was known as Africamts Minor. 



§82] ROME'S TRIUMPH OVER CARTHAGE 69 

was set on fire, and for seventeen days the space within the walls 
was a sea of flames. Every trace of building which fire could not 
destroy was leveled, a plough was driven over the site, and a dreadful 
curse invoked upon any one who should dare attempt to rebuild 
the city. 

Such was the hard fate of Carthage. Polybius, 1 who was an eye- 
witness of the destruction of the city, records that Scipio, as he 
gazed upon the smoldering ruins, seemed to read in them the fate 
of Rome, and, bursting into tears, sadly repeated the lines of Homer : 

The day shall be when holy Troy shall fall 
And Priam, lord of spears, and Priam's folk. 2 

The Carthaginian territory in Africa was made into a Roman prov- 
ince, with Utica as the leading city ; and by means of traders and 
settlers Roman civilization was spread rapidly throughout the regions 
that lie between the ranges of the Atlas and the sea. 

82. The Significance of Rome's Triumph over Carthage. The 
triumph of Rome over Carthage may perhaps rightly be given as 
prominent a place in history as the triumph, more than three cen- 
turies before, of Greece over Persia. In each case Europe was saved 
from the threatened danger of becoming a mere dependency or 
extension of Asia. 

The Semitic Carthaginians had not the political aptitude and moral 
energy that characterized the Italians and the other Aryan peoples 
of Europe. Their civilization was as lacking as the Persian in ele- 
ments of growth and expansion. Had this civilization been spread 
by conquest throughout Europe, the germs of political, literary, artistic, 
and religious life among the Aryans of the continent might have been 
smothered, and their history have been rendered as barren in political 
and intellectual interests as the later history of the races of the Orient. 

It is these considerations which justify the giving of the battle 
of the Metaurus, which marks the real turning point in the long 
struggle between Rome and Carthage, a place along with the battle 
of Marathon in the short list of the really decisive battles of the 

1 It was usual for great Romans to have in their train a Greek philosopher or scholar 
as a companion. 2 /Had, vi, 448. 



JO EXPANSION OF ROME [§83 

world — battles which, determining the trend of great currents of 
history, have seemingly decided the fate of races, of continents, and 
of civilizations. 

83. The Capture and Destruction of Numantia (133 B.C.). It is fit- 
ting that the same chapter which narrates the blotting out of Corinth 
in Greece and of Carthage in Africa should tell also the story of the 
destruction, at the hands of the Romans, of Numantia in Spain. 

The Romans had expelled the Carthaginians from the peninsula, 
but the warlike native tribes — the Celtiberians and Lusitanians — 
of the North and the West were ready to dispute stubbornly with 
the newcomers the possession of the soil. The war gathered about 
Numantia, the siege of which was brought to a close by Scipio ^Emi- 
lianus, the conqueror of Carthage. Before the surrender of the place, 
almost all the inhabitants had met death either in defense of the walls 
or by deliberate suicide. The miserable remnant which the ravages 
of battle, famine, pestilence, and despair had left alive were sold into 
slavery, and the city was leveled to the ground (133 B.C.). 

Though ever since the Second Punic War Spain had been regarded 
as forming a part of the Roman dominions, yet now for the first 
time it really became a Roman possession. Roman merchants and 
settlers crowded into the country. As a result of this great influx of 
Italians, the laws, the manners, the customs, and the language of the 
conquerors were introduced everywhere, so that the peninsula became 
in time thoroughly Romanized. Thus was laid the basis of two 
of the Romance nations of modern times — the Spanish and the 
Portuguese. 

Selections from the Sources. Polybius, i, 10-63 (f° r an account of the 
First Punic War) ; xxxviii, 3-1 1 (the cause of the fall of Greece) ; xxxix, 3-5 
(the fall of Carthage ; it should be remembered that Polybius here writes as 
an eye-witness of the scenes that he describes). Plutarch, Fabius Maximus 
and Marcus Cato. Munro's Soiirce Book, pp. 78-100 ; Davis's Readings (Rome), 

PP- 53-84- 

Secondary Works. Mommsen, vol. ii, bk. iii, chaps, i-xiv. Heitland, vol. i, 
chaps, xxi-xxvi ; vol. ii, chaps, xxvii-xxxiv Pelham, Outlines of Roman 
History, bk. iii, chaps, i-iii. How and Leigh, History of Rome, chaps, xvii- 
xxx. Smith, Carthage and the Carthaginians and Rome and Carthage. Arnold, 
The Roman System of Provincial Administration, chap. i. Arnold, History of 
Rome, chaps, xliii-xlvii (these chapters are generally regarded as the best 



REFERENCES 



71 



account ever written of the Second Punic War). Dodge, Hannibal. Morris, 
Hannibal. Mahan, 7he Influence of Sea Potver upon History, pp. 14-21. 
Church, Story of Carthage (interesting for younger classes). 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Hannibal's passage of the Alps: Polybius 
iii, 50-56. 2. The battle of the Metaurus (207 B.C.) : Creasy, Decisive Battles 
of the World, chap. iv. 3. Change effected in Roman life and manners through 
contact with corrupt Hellenism : Mommsen, vol. ii, bk. iii, chap, xiii, pp. 480- 
491; Plutarch, Marcus Cato ; Seignobos (Wilde ed.), History of Ancient 
Civilization, chap. xxii. 




CHAPTER VI 

THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC: THE PERIOD 

OF REVOLUTION 

(133-31 B.C.) 

84. Introductory. We have now traced in broad outlines the 
development of the institutions of republican Rome, and have told 
briefly the story of that wonderful career of conquest which made 
the little Palatine city the mistress first of Latium, then of Italy, and 
finally of the greater part of the Mediterranean world. In the present 
chapter we shall follow the fortunes of the -Republic through the last 
century of its existence. During this time, though the territorial 
expansion went on, many agencies were at work undermining the 
institutions of the Republic and paving the way for the Empire. What 
these agencies were will best be made apparent by a simple narration 
of the events that crowd this memorable period of Roman history. 

85. The First Servile War in Sicily (135-132 B.C.). With the 
opening of this period we find a terrible struggle going on in Sicily 
between masters and slaves — what is known as the First Servile 
War. The condition of affairs in that island was the outgrowth of 
the Roman system of slavery. 

The captives that the Romans took in war they usually sold into 
servitude. The great number furnished by their numerous conquests 
had caused slaves to become a drug in the slave markets of the 
Mediterranean world. They were so cheap that masters found it 
more profitable to wear their slaves out by a few years of unmerci- 
fully hard labor and then to buy others than to preserve their lives 
for a longer period by more humane treatment. Often in case of 
sickness they were left to die without attention, as the expense of 
nursing exceeded the cost of new purchases. Some estates were 
worked by as many as twenty thousand slaves. That each owner 

72 



§86] THE PUBLIC LANDS 73 

might know his own, the poor creatures were branded like cattle. 
What makes all this the more revolting is the fact that many of these 
slaves were in every way the peers, and some the superiors, of their 
owners. The fortunes of war alone had made the one a servant and 
the other a master. 

The wretched condition of the slaves in Sicily, 1 where the slave 
system exhibited some of its worst features, and the cruelty of their 
masters at last drove them to revolt. The insurrection spread through- 
out the island until two hundred thousand slaves were in arms — if 
axes, reaping hooks, staves,' and roasting spits may be called arms. 
They defeated four Roman armies sent against them, and for three 
years defied the power of Rome. Finally, however, in the year 
132 B.C., the uprising was suppressed. Twenty thousand of the un- 
happy slaves are said to have been crucified. Sicily was thus pacified, 
and remained quiet for nearly a generation. 2 

86. The Public Lands. In Italy itself affairs were in a scarcely 
less wretched condition than in Sicily. At the bottom of a large part 
of the social and economic troubles here was the public land system. 
By law or custom those portions of the public lands which remained 
unsold or unallotted as homesteads were open to any one to till or 
to pasture. In return for such use of the public land the user paid 
the state usually a fifth or a tenth of the yearly produce. Persons 
who availed themselves of this privilege were called possessors or 
occupiers ; we should call them " squatters " or " tenants at will." 

Now it had happened that, in various ways, the greater part of 
these public lands had fallen into the hands of the wealthy. They 
alone had the capital necessary to stock with cattle and slaves the 
new lands, and hence they were the sole occupiers of them. The 
small farmers everywhere, too, were being ruined by the unfair com- 
petition of slave labor, and their little holdings were passing by pur- 
chase, and often by fraud or barefaced robbery, into the hands of 
the great proprietors. 

1 Only a few years before this, upon the destruction of Carthage, thousands of cap- 
tives, masters along with their slaves, were sold to Sicilian slave-traders and transferred 
to Sicily. 

2 In the year 102 b.c. another insurrection of the slaves broke out in the island, 
which it required three years to quell. 



74 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§87 

There was a law, it is true, which made it illegal for any person 
to occupy more than a prescribed amount of the public lands ; but 
this law had long since become a dead letter. The greater part of 
the lands of Italy, about the beginning of the first century B.C., are 
said to have been held by not more than two thousand persons. 
These great landowners found stock-raising more profitable than 
working the soil. Hence Italy had been made into a great sheep 
pasture. The dispossessed peasants, left without home or employ- 
ment, crowded into the cities, congregating especially at Rome, where 
they lived in vicious indolence. Thus, largely through the workings 
of the public land system, the Roman people had become divided 
into two great classes — the rich and the poor, the possessors and 
the nonpossessors. 

87. Reforms of the Gracchi; Tiberius Gracchus (133 B.C.). The 
ablest champions of the cause of the poor against the rich and 
powerful were the celebrated brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, 
sons of Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of 
Hannibal. Aside from their noble birth, they had been carefully nur- 
tured by a mother noted not alone for her acquaintance with the new 
Greek learning, but also for the superior qualities of her mind and 
heart. It was Tiberius, the elder of the brothers, who first undertook 
the cause of reform. The resolution to consecrate his life to the 
alleviation of the distress among the poor and disinherited citizens 
of Rome is said to have been taken by him while traveling through 
Etruria, where he saw the mischief and distress caused by the usurpa- 
tion of the soil by the great landowne/s, and the displacement of the 
peasant farmers by swarms of barbarian slaves. 

Elected by the people to the tribuneship for the year 133 B.C., 
Tiberius as tribune brought forward a proposal which took away 
from the great proprietors all the public lands they were occupying 
over and above a specified amount. The lands thus resumed by the 
state were to be allotted in small holdings of a few acres each to 
poor citizens. 

As was natural, the senatorial party, who represented the wealthy 
landowners, bitterly opposed the measures brought forward by Tibe- 
rius. They resorted to an old device for thwarting a tribune whose 



§88] TRIBUNATE OF GAIUS GRACCHUS 75 

proposals were obnoxious to them. They persuaded one of the col- 
leagues of Tiberius, the tribune Octavius, to interpose his veto. 
Octavius did this, and thus prevented the proposals from being 
brought to a vote in the popular assembly. 1 

The deadlock was broken by Tiberius, and in this way. Through 
the votes of his partisans in an assembly of the people he deposed 
his colleague Octavius. But Octavius refused to acknowledge the 
validity of such a vote ; then Tiberius caused him to be dragged from 
the Rostra by freedmen. Never before since the first year of the 
Republic had the Romans deposed one of their magistrates in this 
way from the office to which they had elected him. The sanctity of 
the constitution, the inviolability of which had been the safeguard 
of the state for a period of almost four centuries, was destroyed. 
It was the beginning of the end. 

After the deposition of Octavius, a client of Tiberius was chosen 
to fill his place. Tiberius' proposal was now made a law, and a board 
of commissioners was appointed to carry out its provisions and to 
prevent the law from becoming a dead letter, as had happened in 
the case of the earlier law. 

To make himself secure for the future against the revenge of the 
nobility, Tiberius now became a candidate for a second term as 
tribune. This was unconstitutional, for at this time a tribune could 
not hold his office for two consecutive years. Naturally the enemies 
of Tiberius opposed his reelection. Rome was in a seething tumult ,• 
rioting began. The partisans of Tiberius were overpowered, and he 
and a number of his followers were killed and their bodies thrown 
into the Tiber. This was the first time since the creation of the 
plebeian tribunate that the contention of parties in Rome had led to 
an appeal to open force, the first time that the city had witnessed 
such a scene of violence and blood. But such scenes were very 
soon to become common enough. 

88. Tribunate of Gaius Gracchus (123-122 B.C.). Gaius Gracchus 
now came forward to assume the position made vacant by the death 
of his brother Tiberius. In the year 1 2 4 b. c. he was elected tribune 

1 Each member of the board of tribunes had the right thus to veto the act of any or 
of all of his colleagues, just as one of the consuls could obstruct the act of his colleague 



j6 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§88 

for the following year. As quaestor in Sardinia he had proved that 
he was of a different mold from the ordinary Roman magistrate. He 
had " left Rome," as Plutarch puts it, " with his purse full of money 
and had brought it back empty ; others had taken out jars full of 
wine and had brought them back full of money." 

Once in the tribuneship, Gaius entered straightway with marvelous 
energy and resourcefulness upon the work of reform. His aim was 
to destroy the government of the Senate, now hopelessly incapable 
and corrupt, and to set up in its place a new government with him- 
self at its head. First, he secured the passage of a law by the people 
which made it constitutional for a tribune to hold his office two years 
in succession. This meant, of course, the virtual transformation of 
the tribuneship into a possible life-tenure office. He next won the 
affection of the poor of the city by carrying a law which provided 
that every Roman citizen, on personal application, should be given 
corn from the public granaries at half or less than half the market 
price. Gaius could not have foreseen all the evils to which this law, 
which was in effect what we know as a poor law, was destined to 
lead. It led eventually to the free distribution of corn to all citizens 
who made application for it. Very soon a large proportion of the 
population of Rome was living in vicious indolence and feeding at 
the public crib. 1 

As a further measure of relief for the poorer traders and the 
artisan class, Gaius established new colonies in Italy, and sent six 
thousand settlers, comprising Italians as well as Roman citizens, to 
the site of Carthage, and founded there a colony called Junonia. 
This was the first citizen-colony established by the Romans outside 
of Italy. 

Another measure now proposed by Gaius alienated a large section 
of his followers, and paved the way for his downfall. This proposal 
seems to have been that all the Latins should be made full Roman 
citizens, and that the Italian allies should be given the rights and 

1 By another law Gaius made friends of the knights (eqaites), the rich merchants and 
bankers, between whom and the senatorial order there was much jealousy and ill will. 
This law transferred the courts in which provincial magistrates accused of wrong-doing 
were tried from the senatorial to this rival equestrian order. Thereby Gaius won the 
favor of this powerful class. 



§89] THE WAR WITH JUGURTHA 77 

privileges then enjoyed by the Latins (sect. 92). Gaius was in this 
matter out of touch with his times. The masses were unwilling to 
confer the rights of the city upon those still without them, for the 
reason that citizenship now, since the whole world was paying tribute 
in one form or another to the ruling class in the Roman state, was 
something valuable. The proposal was defeated, and the popularity 
of Gaius visibly declined. When he stood the third time for reelection 
as tribune he was defeated. Without the protection of his office his 
life was in danger. His friends rallied around him. Fighting took 
place in the streets between the contending factions. Gaius in despair 
took his own life, and three thousand of his followers were killed. 

The consul Lucius Opimius had offered for the head of Gaius and 
that of one of his partisans their weight in gold. The persons who 
brought in the heads appear to have received the promised reward. 
" This is the first instance in Roman history of head money being 
offered and paid, but it was not the last " (Long). 

The common people ever regarded the Gracchi as martyrs to their 
cause, and their memory was preserved, in later times, by statues 
in the public square. To Cornelia, their mother, a monument was 
erected, bearing the simple inscription, "The Mother of the Gracchi." 

89. The War with Jugurtha (111-106 B.C.). After the death of 
the Gracchi there seemed no one left to resist the heartless oppres- 
sions of the aristocratic party. The Gracchan laws respecting the 
public lands were annulled or made of no effect. Italy fell again 
into the hands of a few overrich landowners. The provinces were 
plundered by the Roman governors. The votes of senators and the 
decisions of judges, the offices at Rome and the places in the prov- 
inces — everything pertaining to the government had its price, and 
was bought and sold like merchandise. This is well illustrated by 
affairs in Africa. 

Jugurtha, king of Numidia, had seized all that country, having put 
to death the rightful rulers of different provinces, who had been con- 
firmed in their possessions by the Romans at the close of the Punic 
wars. Commissioners sent from Rome to look into the matter were 
bribed by Jugurtha. An investigation was ordered ; but many promi- 
nent officials at Rome were implicated in the offenses, and the matter 



78 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§90 

was hushed up with money. The venality of the Romans disgusted 
even Jugurtha, who exclaimed, " O venal city, thou wouldst sell thyself 
if thou couldst find a purchaser ! " 

In the year 106 B.C. the war begun five years before against 
Jugurtha was brought to a close by Gaius Marius, a man who had 
risen to the consulship from the lowest ranks of the people. Under 
him fought a young nobleman named Sulla, " a degenerate Sybarite," 
of whom we shall hear much hereafter. 

90. Invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons (113-101 B.C.). The war 
was not yet ended in Africa before terrible tidings came to Rome 
from the north. Two mighty nations of " horrible barbarians," three 
hundred thousand strong in fighting men, coming whence no one 
could tell, had invaded and were now desolating the lands of southern 
Gaul, and might any moment cross the Alps and sweep down into Italy. 

The mysterious invaders proved to be two Germanic tribes, the 
Teutons and Cimbri, the vanguard of that great German migration 
which was destined to change the face and history of Europe. These 
intruders were seeking new homes. They carried with them in rude 
wagons all their property, their wives, and their children. The Celtic 
tribes of Gaul were no match for the newcomers, and fled before 
them as they advanced. Several Roman armies, the guardians of the 
Gallic province of Narbonensis and of the passes of the Alps, were cut 
to pieces. The terror at Rome was only equaled by that occasioned 
by the invasion of the Gauls three centuries before (sect. 40). The 
Gauls were terrible enough ; but now the conquerors of the Gauls 
were coming. 

Marius, the conqueror of Jugurtha, was looked to by all as the 
only man who could save the state in this crisis. In disregard of the 
constitution 1 he was reelected to the consulship, and intrusted with 
the command of the armies. The barbarians had divided into two 
bands. The Cimbri were to cross the eastern Alps and join in the 
valley of the Po the Teutons, who were to force the defiles of the 
western Alps. Marius determined to prevent the union of the barba- 
rians and to crush each band separately. 

1 According to a law passed in 180 B.C., no citizen could be reelected to any magis- 
tracy until after an interval of ten years. 



§91] CHANGES IN THE ARMY »79 

Anticipating the march of the Teutons, Marius hurried into south- 
ern Gaul, and falling upon the barbarians at a favorable moment 
almost annihilated the entire host. 1 He now recrossed the Alps and 
hastened to meet the Cimbri, who were entering the northeastern 
corner of Italy. Uninformed as to the fate of the Teutons, the 
Cimbri sent an embassy to Marius to demand that they and their 
kinsmen be given lands in the peninsula. Marius sent back in reply, 
" The Teutons have got all the land they need on the other side of 
the Alps." The devoted Cimbri were soon to have all they needed 
on this side. 

A terrible battle almost immediately followed at Vercellse (101 B.C.). 
More than one hundred thousand of the barbarians were killed, and 
sixty thousand taken prisoners to be sold as slaves in the Roman 
slave markets. 

91. Changes in the Army. Up to this period a property qualifi- 
cation had been required of the legionary. Only in times of great 
public peril had propertyless citizens been called upon for military 
service. Foreign mercenaries, it is true, had found a place in the 
army, but not in the legions. Marius now gave permission to citizens 
without property to enlist. From this time on, the ranks of the 
Roman armies were filled almost entirely, as in the case of our own 
standing army, by voluntary enlistments. This tended, of course, to 
create a class of poor professional soldiers, who became in effect the 
clients of their general, looked to him to secure them war-booty, and, 
at the expiration of their term of enlistment, grants of public lands ; 
and who were ready to follow him in all kinds of undertakings, even 
in undertakings against the commonwealth. 

92. The Social or Marsic War (91-89 B.C.). Scarcely was the 
danger of the barbarian invasion past before Rome was threatened 
by another and greater evil arising within her own borders. At this 
time all the free inhabitants of Italy were embraced in three classes 
— Roman citizens, Latins, and Italian allies. The Roman citizens 
included the inhabitants of the capital, of the towns called municipia, 
and of the Roman colonies (sect. 48), besides the dwellers on isolated 
farms and the inhabitants of villages scattered everywhere throughout 

1 In the battle of Aquas Sextiae, fought 102 B.C. 




80 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§92 

Italy. The Latins comprised the inhabitants of the . Latin colonies 
(sect. 48). The Italian allies were those conquered peoples that 
Rome had excluded wholly from the rights of the city. 

The Social or Marsic War (as it is often called on account of the 
prominent part taken in the insurrection by the warlike Marsians) 
was a struggle that arose from the demands of the Italian allies for 
the rights and privileges of Roman citizenship. 1 Their demands 
being stubbornly resisted by both the aristocratic and the popular 
party at Rome, 2 they took up arms, resolved upon the establishment 
of a rival state. A town called Corflnium, among the Apennines, was 
chosen as the capital of the new republic, and its name changed to 

Italica. Thus in a single day a large part of 
Italy south of the .Rubicon was lost to Rome. 
The greatness of the danger aroused all the 
old Roman courage and patriotism. Aristo- 
crats and democrats hushed their quarrels and 
Fig i\ Coin of fought bravely side by side for the endangered 
the Italian Con- life of the Republic. The war lasted three 
federacy years, and was finally brought to an end rather 

The Sabellian bull goring by prudent concessions on the part of Rome 

the Roman wolf 1 „ , . . 

than by fighting. In the year 90 B.C., alarmed 
by signs of disaffection in certain of the communities that up to this 
time had remained faithful, Rome granted the franchise of the city 
to all Italian communities that had not declared war against her or 
that had already laid down their arms. The following year the full 
rights of the city were offered to all Italians who should within two 
months appear before a Roman magistrate and express a wish for 
the franchise. This tardy concession to the just demands of the 
Italians virtually ended the war. 3 

1 It should be carefully noted that the opposition to the admission of strangers to 
the rights of the city was no longer based on religious grounds, as was the case in the 
days of patrician Rome (sect. 44). The opposition now arose simply from the selfish 
desire of a privileged class in the Roman state to retain its monopoly rights. 

2 The Italians found one open-minded and generous champion in a nobleman named 
Marcus Livius Drusus ; but by his espousal of their cause Drusus made bitter enemies 
at Rome and he was assassinated. 

3 After the close of the war the rights that had up to this time been enjoyed by the 
Latin towns were conferred upon all the cities between the Po and the Alps. 



§93] POLITICAL RESULTS OF THE SOCIAL WAR ~ 8 1 

93. Comments on the Political Results of the Social "War. Thus 
as an outcome of the war practically all the freemen of Italy south 
of the Po were made equal in civil and political rights. This was a 
matter of great significance. " The enrollment of the Italians among 
her own citizens deserves to be regarded," declares the historian 
Merivale, "as the greatest stroke of policy in the whole history of 
the Republic." This wholesale enfranchisement of Latin and Italian 
allies more than doubled the number of Roman citizens. 1 . 

This equalization of the different classes of the Italian peninsula 
was simply a later phase of that movement in early Rome which 
resulted in the equalization of the two orders of the patricians 
and plebeians (Chapter III). But the purely political results of the 
earlier and those of the later revolution were very different. At the 
earlier time those who demanded and received the franchise were 
persons living either in Rome or in its immediate vicinity, and conse- 
quently able to exercise the acquired right to vote and to hold office. 

But now it was very different. These new-made citizens were living 
in towns and villages or on farms scattered all over Italy, and of 
course very few of them could ever go to Rome, either to participate 
in the elections there, to vote on proposed legislation, or to become 
candidates for the Roman magistracies. Hence the rights they had 
acquired were, after all, politically barren. But no one was to blame 
for this state of things. Rome had simply outgrown her city constitu- 
tion and her system of primary assemblies (sect. 12). She needed 
for her widening empire a representative system like ours ; but repre- 
sentation was a political device far away from the practice if not 
from the thoughts of the men of those times. 

As a result of the impossibility of the Roman citizens outside of 
Rome taking part, as a general thing, in the meetings of the popular 
assemblies at the capital, the offices of the state fell into the hands 
of those actually living in Rome or settled in its immediate neighbor- 
hood. Since the free, or virtually free, distribution of corn and the 
public shows were drawing to the capital from all quarters crowds of 
the poor, the idle, and the vicious, these assemblies were rapidly 

1 The census for the year 70 B.C. gives the number of citizens as 900,000, as against 
394,336 about a generation before the war. 



82 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§94 

becoming simply mobs controlled by noisy demagogues and unscrupu- 

* 
lous military leaders aiming at the supreme power in the state. 

This situation brought about a serious division in the body of 
Roman citizens. Those of the capital came to regard themselves as 
the real rulers of the state, as they actually were, and looked with 
disdain upon those living in the other cities and the remoter districts 
of the peninsula. They alone reaped the fruits of the conquered 
world. At the same time the mass of outside passive citizens, as 
we may call them, came to look with jealousy upon this body of 
pampered aristocrats, rich speculators, and ragged, dissolute clients 
and hangers-on at Rome. They became quite reconciled to the 
thought of power passing out of the hands of such a crowd and 
into the hands of a single man. The feelings of men everywhere 
were being prepared for the revolution that was to overthrow the 
Republic and bring in the Empire. 

94. Condition of Things in the Province of Asia. While the Social 
War was still in progress in Italy a formidable enemy of Rome ap- 
peared in the East. Mithradates VI, surnamed the Great, king of 
Pontus, 1 taking advantage of the distracted state of the Republic, 
had practically destroyed the Roman power throughout the Orient 
and made himself master of Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece. 
In order to render intelligible this amazing and swift revolution in 
the affairs of the East, we must here give a short account of the 
condition of things in that part of the Mediterranean world before 
the appearance upon the stage of Mithradates. 

We have already seen how Rome extended her authority over 
Macedonia and Greece (sects. 74, 75). Soon after the establish- 
ment of her rule in these lands, it was vastly extended in Asia by 
" one of the surprises of history — the extinction of a rich and power- 
ful monarchy by suicide." In the year 133 B.C. King Attalus III of 
Pergamum (sect. 73) died, having willed his kingdom to the Roman 
people. 2 The Romans accepted the bequest, and made the territory 
into a province under the name of Asia. 

1 See map after p. 90. 

2 There were during this period several of these surprises: 96 B.C. Cyrene was 
bequeathed by its last ruler to the Roman Republic; and 75 B.C. the last king of 
Bithynia likewise willed his kingdom to Rome. 



§95] MITHRADATES CREATES AN EMPIRE 83 

This province of Asia embraced probably the richest region, as 
it was certainly one of the oldest in its civilization, that Rome had 
thus far acquired. The Greek cities of the country had traditions 
reaching back into prehistoric times. Their tribute had swollen the 
fabulous wealth of the Lydian Croesus. This exceptional prosperity 
of the earlier time had now indeed passed away, but the wealth and 
trade of the region were still great and important, so that the prov- 
ince presented an attractive field for the operations of Italian traders, 
speculators, and money lenders. The country became crowded with 
these immigrant classes, who plundered the natives, 1 and carried their 
ill-gotten booty to Rome to spend it there in gross and ostentatious 
living. 

The Roman magistrates of the province were, as a rule, men who 
were willing to accept a share of the plunder in return for connivance 
at the wickedness going on all around them. Of course there were 
among the Italian residents many honorable merchants ; but the dis- 
honesty, extortion, and cruelty of the majority were so odious and so 
galling that they all alike became the objects of the utmost hatred 
and detestation of the natives. Bearing in mind this feeling of the 
natives towards the Italians, we shall understand how it was possible 
for Mithradates to effect such an overturning of things so quickly 
as he did. 

95. Mithradates Creates an Empire in the East. Mithradates had 
come to the throne of the little kingdom of Pontus in the year 
120 B.C. His extraordinary career impressed deeply the imagination 
of his times, and his deeds and fame have come down to us dis- 
guised and distorted by legend. His bodily frame and strength were 
immense, and his activity untiring. He could carry on conversation, 
it is said, in twenty-two of the different languages of his subjects. 
He was familiar with the science and letters of Greece. His court, 
crowded with Greek artists and scholars, was one of the great radiat- 
ing centers of Greek influence in the Hellenistic Age. In no other 

1 This plundering went on largely in connection with the collection of the taxes and 
public rents. The natives paid a tenth in kind of the produce of the tilled land, and a 
rent for the use of the public pastures. There were also custom duties on imports. Under 
a law of Gaius Gracchus, the collection of these rents or taxes was farmed out, the 
censors every five years selling the privileges at public auction. 



8 4 



LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 



[§96 



country of Asia was there a more perfect blending of Persian and 
Greek civilizations. In truth, Mithradates was " the heir of Darius 
and Alexander." He carried on in regions which the Macedonian 
conquests had not reached, the work of Alexander and his successors. 
He founded new Greek cities and encouraged marriages between 
the natives and Greeks. But Mithradates, notwithstanding the fact 
of his half Greek descent, — his mother was a Syrian Greek, — was 
in his deepest instincts and impulses a typical oriental barbarian. 

In the course of a few years Mithradates pushed out the bound- 
aries of his little hereditary kingdom until it almost encircled the Eux- 

ine, which became in effect a Pontic sea. 
He now audaciously encroached upon the 
Roman possessions in Asia Minor. The 
natives of the Roman province of Asia, 
oppressed by Roman speculators, tax farm- 
ers, usurers, and corrupt magistrates, hailed 
him as their deliverer. 

In order to make secure his power in 
Asia, Mithradates now gave orders that 
on a certain day every Italian, without 
distinction of age or sex, should be put to 
death. This savage order was almost everywhere carried out to the 
letter. Men, women, and children, all of the Italian name, were mas- 
sacred. The number of victims of the wholesale slaughter is variously 
estimated at from seventy thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand. 
Mithradates now turned his attention to Europe and sent his army 
into Greece. Athens, hoping for the revival of her old empire, and 
the most of the other Greek cities, renounced the authority of Rome 
and hailed Mithradates as the protector of Hellenism against the 
barbarian Romans. Thus in the space of a few months was the 
power of the Romans destroyed throughout the East, and the bound- 
aries of their empire pushed back virtually to the Adriatic. 

96. Marius and Sulla Contend for the Command in the War against 
Mithradates. The Roman Senate now bestirred itself. An army was 
raised for the recovery of the Orient. Straightway a contest arose 
between Marius and Sulla for the command of the forces. The 




Fig. i 6. Mithradates 
the Great. (Coin) 



§97] MARIUS MASSACRES THE ARISTOCRATS 



5 



Senate conferred this upon Sulla, who at that time was consul. 
But by violent means an unconstitutional measure 1 was carried in an 
assembly of the people whereby the command was taken away from 
Sulla and given to Marius. Sulla now saw that the sword must settle 
the dispute. At the head of his legions he marched upon Rome and 
entered the gates, and " for the first time in the annals of the city a 
Roman army encamped within the walls." The party of Marius was 
defeated, and he and ten of his com- 
panions were proscribed. Sulla soon 
embarked with the legions to meet 
Mithradates in the East (88 B.C.). 

97. Marius Massacres the Aristocrats 
(87 B.C.). Leaving Sulla to carry on the 
Mithradatic war, 2 we must first follow 
the fortunes of the proscribed Marius. 
Returning from Africa, whither he had 
fled, 3 Marius joined the consul Cinna in 
an attempt to crush by force the sena- 
torial party. Rome was cut off from her 
food supplies and starved into submission. 

Marius now took a terrible revenge 
upon his enemies. The consul Gnaeus 
Octavius, who represented the aristocrats, 

was assassinated, and his head set up in front of the Rostra. Never 
before had such a thing been seen at Rome — a consul's head ex- 
posed to the public gaze. For five days and nights a merciless 
slaughter was kept up. The life of every man in the capital was in 
the hands of the revengeful Marius. As a fitting sequel to all this 
violence, Marius and Cinna were, in an entirely illegal way, declared 
consuls. Marius was now consul for the seventh time. He enjoyed 
his seventh consulship only thirteen days, being carried away by death 
in the seventy-first year of his age (86 B.C.). 

1 The measure was a provision of the Sulpician Laws (88 B.C.), so called from their 
proposer, the tribune Sulpicius, who, from fear of the designs of Sulla, had entered into 
an understanding with Marius. 

2 This was what is known as the First Mithradatic War (88-84 B.C.). 

3 For the wanderings of Marius, see Plutarch, Gains Marius, xxxv-xli. 




Fig. 17. Marius (?) (Uffizi 
Gallery, Florence) 



86 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§98 

98. The Proscriptions of Sulla (82 B.C.). With the Mithradatic 
war ended, Sulla wrote to the Senate, saying that he was now com- 
ing to take vengeance upon the Marian party — his own and the 
Republic's enemies. The terror and consternation created at Rome 
by this letter were increased by the accidental burning of the Capitol. 
The Sibylline Books, which held the secrets of the fate of Rome, 
were consumed. This accident awakened the most gloomy apprehen- 
sions. Such an event, it was believed, could only foreshadow the 
most direful calamities to the state. 

The returning army from the East landed in Italy (83 B.C.). After 
much hard fighting 1 Sulla entered Rome with all the powers of a 
dictator. The leaders of the Marian party were proscribed, rewards 
were offered for their heads, and their property was confiscated. 
Sulla was implored to make out a list of those he designed to put to 
death, that those he intended to spare might be relieved of the terrible 
suspense in which all were now held. He made out a list of eighty, 
which was attached to the Rostra. The people murmured at the 
length of the roll. In a few days it was extended to over three 
hundred, and then grew rapidly until it included the names of thou- 
sands of the best citizens of Italy. Hundreds were murdered simply 
because some favorites of Sulla coveted their estates. A wealthy 
noble, coming into the Forum and reading his own name in the list 
of the proscribed, exclaimed, " Alas ! my villa has proved my ruin." 
Julius Caesar, at this time a mere boy of eighteen, was proscribed on 
account of his relationship to Marius, but, upon the intercession of 
friends, Sulla spared him ; as he did so, however, he said warningly, 
" There is in that boy many a Marius." 

The number of victims of these proscriptions has been handed 
down as forty-seven hundred. Almost all of these must have been 
men of wealth or of special distinction on account of their activity in 
public affairs. The property of the proscribed was confiscated and sold 
at public auction, or virtually given away by Sulla to his favorites. The 
foundations of some of the colossal fortunes that we hear of a little 
after this were laid during these times of proscription and robbery. 

1 The fighting was especially marked by a terrible battle before the Colline Gate of 
the capital. 



§99] SULLA MADE DICTATOR 8; 

•This reign of terror bequeathed to later times a terrible " legacy 
of hatred and fear." Its awful scenes haunted the Romans for gen- 
erations, and at every crisis in the affairs of the commonwealth the 
public mind was thrown into a state of painful apprehension lest 
there should be a repetition of these frightful days of Sulla. 

99. Sulla made Dictator, with Power to Remodel the Constitution 
(82 B.C.). The Senate now passed a decree which approved and con- 
firmed all that Sulla had done, and made him dictator during his own 
good pleasure. This was the first time a dictator had been appointed 
since the war with Hannibal, and the first time the dictatorial authority 
had ever 'been conferred for a longer period than six months. The 
decree further invested Sulla with authority to make laws and to 
remodel the constitution in any way that might seem to him necessary 
and best. The power here given Sulla was like that with which the 
decemvirs had been clothed nearly four centuries before this time 
(sect. 33). 

The reforms of Sulla had for their chief aim the restoration of the 
authority of the Senate, which recent revolutions had reduced almost 
to a nullity, and the lessening of the power of the tribunate and of 
the assembly of the plebs. 

100. The Death of Sulla ; Result of his Rule. After having exer- 
cised the unlimited power of his office for three years, Sulla, to the 
surprise of everybody, suddenly resigned the dictatorship and went 
into retirement. He died the year following his abdication (78 B.C.). 
One important result of the reign of Sulla as an absolute dictator 
was the accustoming of the people to the idea of the rule of a single 
man. His short dictatorship was the prelude to the reign of the 
permanent imperator. 

The parts of the old actors in the drama were now all played to 
the end. But the plot deepens, and new men appear upon the stage 
to carry on the new, which are really the old, parts. 

101. Spartacus ; War of the Gladiators (73-71 B.C.). About a 
decade after the proscriptions of Sulla, Italy was the scene of fresh 
troubles. Gladiatorial combats had become at this time the favorite 
sport of the amphitheater. At Capua was a sort of training-school 
from which skilled fighters were hired out for public or private 



88 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§ 102 

entertainments. In this seminary was a Thracian slave, known by the 
name of Spartacus, who incited his companions to revolt. The in- 
surgents fled to the crater of Vesuvius and made that their strong- 
hold. There they were joined by gladiators from other schools, and 
by slaves and discontented persons from every quarter. Their num- 
ber at length increased to one hundred and fifty thousand men. For 
three years they defied the power of Rome, and even gained control 
of the larger part of southern Italy. But at length Spartacus himself 
was killed and the insurrection suppressed. 1 

102. The Abuses and the Prosecution of Verres (70 B.C.). Terrible 
as was the state of society in Italy, still worse was the condition of 
affairs outside the peninsula. At first the rule of the Roman gov- 
ernors in the provinces, though severe, was honest and prudent. But 
during the period of profligacy and corruption upon which we have 
now entered, the administration of these foreign possessions had 
become shamefully dishonest and incredibly cruel and rapacious. 
The prosecution of Verres, the propraetor of Sicily, exposed the 
scandalous rule of the oligarchy, into whose hands the government 
had fallen. For three years Verres plundered and ravaged that island 
with impunity. He sold all the offices and all his decisions as judge. 
He demanded of the farmers the greater part of their crops, which 
he sold to swell his already enormous fortune. Agriculture was thus 
ruined and the farms were abandoned. Verres had a taste for art, and 
when on his tours through the island confiscated gems, vases, statues, 
paintings, and other things which struck his fancy, whether in temples 
or in private dwellings. 

Verres could not be called to account while in office (sect. 28), 
and it was doubtful whether, after the end of his term, he could be 
convicted, so venal had become the Senate, the body by which all 
such offenders were tried. Indeed, Verres himself openly boasted 
that he intended two thirds of his gains for his judges and lawyers ; 
the remaining one third would satisfy himself. 

At length, after Sicily had come to look as though it had been 
ravaged by barbarian conquerors, the infamous robber was impeached. 

1 The defeat of the gladiators was mainly the work of the general Marcus Licinius 
Crassus (see sect. 107). 



§103] 



PIRACY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



89 



The prosecutor was Marcus Tullius Cicero, the brilliant orator, who 
was at this time just rising into prominence at Rome. The storm of 
indignation raised by the developments of the trial caused Verres to 
flee into exile to Massilia, whither he took with him much of his 
ill-gotten wealth. 

103. Growth of Piracy in the Mediterranean ; "War with the Pirates 
(78-66 B.C.). Another most shameful commentary on the utter inca- 
pacity of the government of the aristocrats was the growth of piracy 
in the Mediterranean 
waters during their rule. 
It is true that this was 
an evil which had been 
growing for a long time. 
The Romans through 
their conquest of the 
countries fringing 
Mediterranean had 
not only 



stroyed 



governments 




Fig. 18. Roman Trading Vessel 



the 

de- 

the 
that had 
maintained order on the 
land but at the same 
time, as in the case of 
Carthage, had destroyed 
the fleets which, since the 

days when the rising Greek cities suppressed piracy in the JEgean 
Sea, had policed the Mediterranean and kept its ship routes clear of 
corsairs. In the more vigorous days of the Republic the sea had been 
well watched by Roman fleets, but after the close of the wars with 
Carthage the Romans had allowed their war navy to fall into decay. 

The Mediterranean, thus left practically without patrol, was swarm- 
ing with pirates ; for Roman oppression in Africa, Spain, and espe- 
cially in Greece and Asia Minor, had caused thousands of adventurous 
spirits in those maritime countries to take to their ships and seek a live- 
lihood by preying upon the commerce of the seas. The cruelty and 
extortion of the Roman governors in the various provinces, the civil 
war, the proscriptions and confiscations of the days of terror at Rome, 



90 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§ 103 

the impoverishment and dispossession of the peasant farmers every- 
where through the growth of great slave estates — all these things, 
filling as they did the Mediterranean lands with homeless and des- 
perate men, had also driven large numbers of hitherto honest and 
industrious persons to the same course of life. " They harvested the 
sea instead of the land." 

These " ruined men of all nations," now turned pirates, had banded 
themselves together in a sort of government and state. They had 
as places of refuge numerous strong fortresses — four hundred it is 
said — among the inaccessible mountains of the coast lands they fre- 
quented. They had a fleet of a thousand sail, with dockyards and 
naval arsenals. They made treaties with the Greek maritime cities 
and formed leagues of friendship with the kings and princes of 
the East. 

Swift ships, sailing in fleets and squadrons, scoured the waters of 
the Mediterranean, so that no merchantman could spread her sails in 
safety. Nor were these buccaneers content with what spoils the sea 
might yield them ; like the Vikings of the Northern seas in later times, 
they made descents upon every coast, plundered villas and towns, and 
sweeping off the inhabitants sold them openly as slaves in the slave 
markets of the East. In some regions the inhabitants, as in early 
times, were compelled to remove for safety from the coast and re- 
build their homes farther inland. The pirates even ravaged the 
shores of Italy itself. They carried off merchants and travelers from 
the Appian Way and held them for ransom. At last they began to 
intercept the grain ships of Sicily and Africa and thereby threatened 
Rome with starvation. Corn rose to famine prices. 

The Romans now bestirred themselves. In the year 67 B.C. Gnaeus 
Pompey, a rising young general, upon whom the title of " Great " 
had already been conferred, was invested with dictatorial power for 
three years over the Mediterranean and all its coasts for fifty miles 
inland. He quickly swept the pirates from the sea, captured their 
strongholds in Cilicia, and settled in colonies, chiefly in Cilicia and 
Greece, the twenty thousand prisoners that fell into his hands. His 
vigorous and successful conduct of this campaign against the pirates 
gained him great honor and reputation. 




THE ROMAN DOMINIONS 

AT THE END OF THE 

MITHRADATIC WAR 

B. C. 64 



15 



§104] 



POMPEY IN THE EAST 



91 



104. Pompey in the East; the Death of Mithradates. Pompey 
had not yet ended the war with the pirates before he was given, by 
a vote of the people, charge of the war against Mithradates, 1 who 
now for several years had been in arms against Rome. In a great 
battle in Lesser Armenia Pompey almost annihilated the army of 
Mithradates. The king fled from the field, and soon afterwards, to 
avoid falling into the hands of the Romans, took his own life 2 
(63 B.C.). His death removed one of the most formidable enemies 
that Rome had ever encountered. Hamilcar, 
Hannibal, and Mithradates were the three 
great names that the Romans always pro- 
nounced with respect and dread. 

Pompey now turned south and conquered 
Syria, Phoenicia, and Ccele-Syria, which coun- 
tries he erected into a Roman province under 
the name of Syria (64 B.C.). Still pushing 
southward, the conqueror entered Palestine, 
and after a short siege of Jerusalem, by 
taking advantage of the scruples of the Jews 
in regard to fighting on the Sabbath day, 
captured the city (63 B.C.). In spite of the 
protestations of the priests, Pompey in- 
sisted upon entering the innermost shrine 
of the temple there. He was astonished to find the chamber vacant, 
without even a picture or a statue of the god to whom the temple was 
dedicated. Seemingly awed by his surroundings, he left untouched 
the treasures of the God of the Bible. " Alone of all the gods of 
the Orient his gold was respected by a Roman adventurer " (Ferrero). 

In the conquest of Palestine the Romans brought within the bound- 
aries of their widening empire one of the least of all the lands they 
had subjected, yet one destined to exert a profound influence upon 
its destinies. 

1 The so-called Third Mithradatic War (74-64 B.C.). What is known as the Second 
Mithradatic War (83-82 B.C.) was a short conflict that arose just after the close of the 
First (p. 85, n. 2). The chief conduct of the present war had been in the hands of 
Lucius Licinius Lucullus. 

2 Some authorities, however, say that he was murdered by his son. 




Fig. 19. Pompey the 

Great 
(Spada Palace, Rome) 



92 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§ 105. 

105. Pompey's Triumph. After regulating the affairs of the differ- 
ent states and provinces in the East, and founding a great number 
of cities, Pompey set out on his return to Rome, where, dressed in 
the manner of Alexander the Great, he celebrated such a triumph as 
never before had been seen since Rome became a city. The spoils 
of all the East were borne in the procession ; three hundred and 
twenty-two princes walked as captives before the triumphal chariot 
of the conqueror; legends upon the. banners proclaimed that he had 
conquered twenty-one kings, captured one thousand strongholds, nine 
hundred towns, and eight hundred ships, and subjugated more than 
twelve millions of people ; and that he had put into the treasury 
twenty thousand talents, 1 besides doubling the regular revenues of the 
state. He boasted that three times he had triumphed, and each time 
for the conquest of a continent — first for Africa, then for Europe, 
and now for Asia, which completed the conquest of the world. 

106. The Conspiracy of Catiline (64-62 B.C.). While the legions 
were absent from Italy with Pompey in the East a most daring con- 
spiracy against the government was formed at Rome. Lucius Sergius 
Catilina, a ruined spendthrift, had gathered a large company of profli- 
gate young nobles, weighed down with debts and desperate like him- 
self, and had deliberately planned to murder the consuls and the chief 
men of the state and to plunder and burn the capital. The offices of 
the new government were to be divided among the conspirators. The 
proscriptions of Sulla were to be renewed and all debts were to be 
canceled. 

Fortunately, all the plans of the conspirators were revealed to the 
consul Cicero, the great orator. The Senate immediately clothed 
the consuls with dictatorial power with the usual formula that " they 
" should take care that the Republic received no harm." The city 
walls were manned ; and at every point the capital and state were 
armed against the " invisible foe." Then in the senate chamber, with 
Catiline himself present, Cicero exposed the whole conspiracy in a 
famous Philippic, known as the First Oration against Catiline. The 
senators shrank from the conspirator and left the seats about him 
empty. After a feeble effort to reply to Cicero, overwhelmed by a 

1 About $25,000,000. 



§107] CAESAR, CRASSUS, AND POMPEY 93 

sense of his guilt, and the cries of " traitor " and " parricide " from 
the senators, Catiline fled from the chamber and hurried out of the 
city to the camp of his followers in Etruria. In a desperate battle 
fought near Pistoria he was slain with many of his followers (62 B.C.). 
His head was borne as a trophy to Rome. Cicero was hailed as the 
" Savior of his Country." 

107. Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey : the So-called "First Trium- 
virate" (60 B.C.). Although the conspiracy of Catiline had failed, 
still it was very easy to foresee that the downfall of the Roman 
Republic was near at hand. Indeed, from this time on, only the 
name remained. The days of liberty at Rome were over. From 
this time forward the government was practically in the hands 
of ambitious and popular leaders, or of corrupt combinations and 
" rings." Events gather about a few great names, and the annals 
of the Republic become biographical rather than historical. 

There were now in the state three men — Caesar, Crassus, and 
Pompey — who were destined to shape affairs. Gaius Julius Caesar 
was born in the year 100 B.C. Although descended from an old 
patrician family, still he had identified himself with the Marian or 
democratic party. In every way he courted public favor. He lav- 
ished enormous sums upon public games and tables. His popularity 
was unbounded. A successful campaign in Spain had already made 
known to himself, as well as to others, his genius as a commander. 

Marcus Licinius Crassus belonged to the senatorial or aristocratic 
party. He owed his influence to his enormous wealth, being one of 
the richest men in the Roman world. His property was estimated at 
seventy-one hundred talents. 1 

With Gnaeus Pompey and his achievements we are already familiar. 
His influence throughout the Roman world was great ; for in settling 
and reorganizing the many countries he subdued he had always taken 
care to reconstruct them in his own interest, as well as in that of the 
Republic. The offices were filled with his friends and adherents. 
This patronage had secured for him incalculable authority in the 
provinces. His veteran legionaries, too, were naturajly devoted to 
the general who had led them so often to victory. 

1 About $9,000,000. 



94 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§ 108 

What is commonly known as the " First Triumvirate " x rested on 
the genius of Caesar, the wealth of Crassus, and the achievements of 
Pompey. It was a private arrangement entered into by these three 
men for the purpose of securing to themselves the control of public 
affairs. Each pledged himself to work for the interests of the others. 
Caesar was the manager of the " ring." Through the aid of his 
colleagues he secured the consulship. " Dark was the issue which 
destiny was reserving for each of the three " (Ferrero). 

108. Caesar's Conquest of Gaul (58-51 B.C.). At the end of his 
consulship Caesar secured for himself, as proconsul, the administra- 
tion of the provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul, together 
with Illyricum. Beyond the Alps the Gallic and Germanic tribes were 
in restless movement. Caesar saw there a grand field for military 
exploits, which might gain for him such glory and prestige as in other 
fields had been won and were now enjoyed by Pompey. With this 
achieved, and with a veteran army devoted to his interests, he might 
hope easily to attain that position at the head of affairs towards which 
his ambition was urging him. 

In the spring of 58 B.C. alarming intelligence from beyond the 
Alps caused Caesar to hasten from Rome into Transalpine Gaul. 
Now began a series of eight brilliant campaigns directed against the 
various tribes of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. In his admirable Com- 
mentaries, the best history written by a Roman, Caesar himself has 
left us a faithful and graphic account of all the memorable marches, 
battles, and sieges that filled the years between 58 and 51 B.C. 

The year 55 B.C. marked two notable achievements. Early in the 
spring of this year Caesar constructed a bridge across the Rhine and 
led his legions against the Germans in their native woods and swamps. 
In the autumn of the same year he crossed, by means of hastily con- 
structed ships, the channel that separates the mainland from Britain, 
and after maintaining a foothold upon that island for two weeks with- 
drew his legions into Gaul for the winter. The following season he 

1 This designation of this unofficial alliance is not strictly correct since the term 
Triumvirate is the title of a board of three regular magistrates and therefore should 
properly be applied only to the body mentioned in section 107 and commonly desig- 
nated as the " Second Triumvirate." That body was established by a plebescitum which 
conferred upon the triumvirs dictatorial powers for five years. 



§109] RESULTS OF THE GALLIC WARS 95 

made another invasion of Britain, but, after some encounters with 
the fierce barbarians, recrossed to the mainland without having estab- 
lished any permanent garrisons in the island. Almost one hundred 
years passed away before the natives of Britain were again molested 
by the Romans (sect. 130). 

Great enthusiasm was aroused at Rome by Caesar's victories over the 
Gauls. " Let the Alps sink," exclaimed Cicero ; " the gods raised them 
to shelter Italy from the barbarians ; they are now no longer needed."- 

109. Results of the Gallic Wars. The historian Ferrero pro- 
nounces Caesar's conquest of Gaul to be "the most important fact 
in Roman history." One of the many important results of the con- 
quest was the establishment throughout this region of the Roman 
Peace, Before the Romans entered the country it was divided among 
a great number of tribes that were constantly at war with one another. 
In throwing her authority over them all, Rome caused their inter- 
tribal contentions to cease, and thus established a condition of things 
that first made possible the rapid and steady development among the 
people of the arts of peace. 

A second result of the Gallic wars of Caesar was the Romanizing 
of Gaul. The country was opened to Roman traders and settlers, 
who carried with them the language, customs, and arts of Italy. 
Honors were conferred upon many of the Gallic chieftains, privi- 
leges were bestowed upon the different communities, and the Roman 
franchise was granted to prominent and influential natives. 

This Romanization of Gaul meant much both for Roman history 
and for the general history of Europe. The Roman stock in Italy 
was failing. It was this new Romanized people- that in the times of 
the Empire gave to the Roman state many of its best commanders, 
statesmen, emperors, orators, poets, and historians. 

The Romanization of Gaul meant, further, the adding of another 
to the number of Latin nations that were to arise from the break-up 
of the Roman Empire. There can be little doubt that if Caesar had 
not conquered Gaul it would have been overrun by the Germans, 
and would ultimately have become simply an extension of Germany. 
There would then have been no great Latin nation north of the Alps 
and the Pyrenees. It is difficult to imagine what European history 



96 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§ 110 

would be like if the French nation, with its semi-Italian temperament, 
instincts, and traditions, had never come into existence. 

A final result of Caesar's campaigns in Gaul and against the 
intruding German tribes was the check given to the migratory 
movements of these peoples. Had this check not been given, it 
is possible that what we call the Great Migration of the German 
peoples might have taken place in the first century before, instead of 
•in the fifth century after, the coming of Christ, and Rome's great 
work of enriching civilization and establishing it everywhere through- 
out the Mediterranean world might have been interrupted while yet 
only fairly begun. 

110. The Death of Crassus ; Rivalry between Caesar and Pompey. 
While Caesar was engaged in his Transalpine wars, Crassus was 
leading an army against the Parthians, hoping to rival there the 
brilliant conquests of Caesar in Gaul. But his army was almost 
annihilated by the enemy, and he himself was slain (54 B.C.). 

The world now belonged to Caesar and Pompey. That the in- 
satiable ambition of these two rivals should sooner or later bring 
them into collision was inevitable. Their alliance in the "triumvirate " 
was simply one of selfish convenience, not of friendship. While Caesar 
was carrying on his campaigns in Gaul, Pompey was at Rome watch- 
ing jealously the growing reputation of his great rival. He strove by 
a princely liberality to win the affections of the common people. He 
gave magnificent games and set public tables, and when the interest 
of the people in the sports of the circus flagged he entertained them 
with gladiatorial combats. 

In a similar manner Caesar strengthened 'himself with the people 
for the struggle which he plainly foresaw. He sought in every way 
to ingratiate himself with the Gauls'; he increased the pay of his 
soldiers, conferred the privileges of Roman citizenship upon the in- 
habitants of different cities, and sent to Rome enormous sums of 
gold to be expended in the erection of temples, theaters, and other 
public structures, and in the celebration of games and shows that 
should rival in magnificence those given by Pompey. 

The Senate, favoring Pompey, made him sole consul for one year 
(52 B.C.), which was about the same thing as making him dictator, and 



§ 111] C^SAR BECOMES MASTER OF THE WEST 97 

issued a decree that Caesar should resign his office and disband his 
Gallic legions by a stated day. The crisis had now come. Caesar 
ordered his legions to hasten from Gaul into Italy. Without waiting 
for their arrival, at the head of a small body of veterans that he had 
with him at Ravenna, he crossed the Rubicon, a little stream that 
marked the boundary of his province. This was a declaration of war. 
As he plunged into the river, he exclaimed, " The die is cast ! " 

111. Caesar becomes Master of the West (49-48 B.C.). As Caesar 
marched southward, one city after another threw ppen its gates to 
him ; legion after legion went over to his standard. Pompey, with a 
few legions, fled to Greece. Within sixty days Caesar had made him- 
self master of all Italy. His moderation won all classes to his side. 
Many had looked to see the terrible scenes of the days of Marius 
and Sulla reenacted. Caesar, however, soon gave assurance that life 
and property should be held sacred. 

With order restored in Italy, and with Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain 
brought under his authority, Caesar was free to turn his forces against 
Pompey in the East. The armies of the rivals met upon the plains 
of Pharsalus in Thessaly. Pompey's forces were cut to pieces. He 
himself fled from the field and escaped to Egypt. Just as he was 
landing he was assassinated. 

112. A Laconic Message; End of the Civil War. Caesar, who had 
followed Pompey to Egypt, was detained there nine months in settling 
a dispute respecting the throne. The kingdom was finally secured to 
the celebrated Cleopatra and a younger brother. Intelligence was 
now brought from iVsia Minor that Pharnaces, son of Mithradates 
the Great, was inciting a revolt among the peoples of that region. 
Caesar met the Pontic king at Zela, defeated him, and in five days 
put an end to the war (47 B.C.). His laconic message to a friend 
announcing his victory is famous. It ran thus: Veni, vidi, vici 1 
(" I came, I saw, I conquered "). 

Caesar now hurried back to Italy, and thence proceeded to Africa, 
which the friends of the old Republic had made their last chief 
rally ing-place. At the great battle of Thapsus (46 B.C.) they were 
crushed. Fifty thousand lay dead upon the field. Cato, 2 who had 

1 Plutarch, Ccesar, 1. 2 This was a grandson of Cato the Censor (sect. 77). 



98 



LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 



[§H3 



been the very life and soul of the army, refusing to outlive the 
Republic which he had served, took his own life. 

113. Caesar as Dictator; an Uncrowned King. Caesar was now 
virtually lord of the Roman world. 1 He refrained from taking the 
title of king, but he assumed the purple robe, the insignia of royalty, 
and, after the manner of sovereigns, caused his effigy to be stamped 

on the public coins. His 
statue was significantly 
given a place along with 
those of the seven kings 
of early Rome. He was 
invested with all the offices 
and dignities of the state. 
The Senate made him per- 
petual dictator (44 B.C.), 
and conferred upon him 
the powers of censor, con- 
sul, and tribune, with the 
titles of Pontifex Maximus 
and Imperator. Thus, 
though not a king in 
name, Caesar's actual posi- 
tion at the head of the 
state was that of an ab- 
solute ruler. 

114. Caesar as a States- 
man. Caesar had great 
plans which embraced the 
whole world that Rome had conquered. A chief aim of his was 
to establish between the different classes of the empire equality 
of rights, to place Italy and the provinces on the same footing, to 
blend the various races and peoples into a real nation — in a word, 
to carry to completion that great work of making all the world 
Roman which had been begun in the earliest times. To this end he 




Fig. 20. Julius Caesar. (Vatican Museum) 



1 The sons of Pompey — Gnaeus and Sextus — had headed a revolt in Spain. Caesar 
crushed the movement a little later in the decisive battle of Munda, 45 B.C. 



§ 114] CAESAR AS A STATESMAN 99 

established numerous colonies in the provinces and settled in them 
a hundred thousand of the poorer citizens of the capital. With a liber- 
ality that astonished and offended many, he admitted to the Senate 
sons of freedmen, and particularly representative men from among 
the Gauls, and conferred upon individual provincials and upon entire 
classes and communities in the provinces the partial or full rights 
of the city. His action here marks an epoch in the history of Rome. 
The immunities and privileges of the city had never hitherto been 
conferred, save in exceptional cases, upon any peoples other than 
those of the Italian race. Caesar threw the gates of the city wide 
open to the non-Italian peoples of the provinces. Thus was fore- 
shadowed the day when all freemen throughout the whole Empire 
should be Roman in name and privilege 1 (sect. 143). 

In the administration of the provinces Caesar introduced reforms 
which placed checks upon the robbery of the provincials by rapacious 
governors, tax farmers, and usurers. At Rome he corrected abuses 
in the corn doles by restricting the distribution to the really needy. 
This reform reduced the number of recipients of this public charity 
by more than one half. 

As Pontifex Maximus, Caesar reformed the calendar so as to bring 
the festivals once more in their proper seasons, and provided against 
further confusion by making the year consist of three hundred and 
sixty-five days, with an added day for every fourth or leap year. 
This is what is called the Julian Calendar. 2 

Besides these achievements, Caesar projected many vast under- 
takings (among these a survey of the enormous domains of the state 
and the codification of the Roman laws) which the abrupt termination 
of his life prevented his carrying into execution. 

1 One of the most important of all Caesar's laws was that known as the Lex Julia 
Municipalis (45 B.C.), whose aim was to bring order and uniformity into the municipal 
system and to develop a more vigorous civic life in the municipal towns of Italy. All 
the municipal governments organized after this, whether in towns in Italy or in the prov- 
inces, conformed to the principles embodied in this important constitutional measure. 

2 This calendar, which was based on the old Egyptian calendar, was in general use 
in Europe until the year 1582, when it was reformed by Pope Gregory XIII, and became 
what is known as the Gregorian Calendar. This in time came to be used in all Christian 
countries except those of the Greek Church (Russia, etc.), where the Julian Calendar 
is still followed. 



IOO LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§115 

115. The Death of Caesar (44 B.C.). Caesar had his bitter personal 
enemies, who never ceased to plot his downfall. There were, too, 
sincere lovers of the old Republic to whom he was the destroyer of 
republican liberties. The impression began to prevail that he was- 
aiming to make himself king. A crown was several times offered 
him in public by the consul Mark Antony ; but seeing the manifest 
displeasure of the people, he each time pushed it aside. Yet there is 
no doubt that secretly he desired it. It was reported that he pro- 
posed to rebuild the walls of Troy, the fabled cradle of the Roman 
race, and make that ancient capital the seat of the new Roman 
Empire. Others professed to believe that the arts and charms of the 
Egyptian Cleopatra, who had borne him a son at Rome, would entice 
him to make Alexandria the center of the proposed kingdom. Thus 
many, out of love for Rome and the old Republic, were led to enter 
into a conspiracy against the life of Caesar with those who sought to 
rid themselves of the dictator for other and personal reasons. 

The Ides (the fifteenth day) of March, 44 B.C., upon which day 
the Senate convened, witnessed the assassination. Seventy or eighty 
conspirators, headed by Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus, were con- 
cerned in the plot. The soothsayers must have had some knowledge 
of the plans of the conspirators, for they had warned Caesar to " be- 
ware of the Ides of March." As he entered the hall where the Senate 
was to assemble that day, he observed the astrologer Spurinna and 
remarked carelessly to him, referring to his prediction, " The Ides of 
March have come." " Yes," replied Spurinna, " but not gone." 

No sooner had Caesar taken his seat than the conspirators crowded 
about him as if to present a petition. Upon a signal from one of 
their number their daggers were drawn. For a moment Caesar 
defended himself ; but seeing Brutus, upon whom he had lavished 
gifts and favors, among the conspirators, he is said to have exclaimed 
reproachfully, " Et tu, Brute!" — "Thou, too, Brutus!" then to 
have drawn his mantle over his face and to have received unresistingly 
their further thrusts. 

The Romans had killed many of their best men and cut short their 
work ; but never had they killed such a man as Caesar. He was 
the greatest man their race had yet produced or was ever to produce. 



§116] 



THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE 



IOI 



Caesar's work was left all incomplete. What lends to it such great 
historical importance is the fact that by his reforms and policies 
Caesar drew the broad lines which his successors followed, and in- 
dicated the principles on which the government of the future must 
be based. 

116. The Second 
Triumvirate (43 B.C.). 
Antony, the friend and 
secretary of Caesar, 
had gained possession 
of his will and papers, 
and now, under color 
of carrying out the 
testament of the dic- 
tator, according to a 
decree of the Senate, 
entered upon a course 
of high-handed usur- 
pation. He was aided 
in his designs by Mar- 
cus ^milius Lepidus, 
one of Caesar's old 
lieutenants. Very soon 
he was exercising all 
the powers of a real 
dictator. " The tyrant 
is dead," said Cicero, 
" but the tyranny still 
lives." 

To what lengths Antony would have gone in his career of usurpa- 
tion it is difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this point by 
Gaius Octavian (Octavius), the young grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, 
and the one whom he had named in his will as his heir and adopted 
as his son. Civil war at once ensued. After a few months' hostilities, 1 

1 The "War of Mutina" (44-43 B.C.), so called for the reason that the fighting took 
place around Mutina (now Modena) in northern Italy. 




Fig. 2i. 



Octavian (Octavius) as a Youth 
(Vatican Museum) 



102 



LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 



[§H6 



a common fear of the growing strength in the East of the murderers 
of Caesar, led Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus to resolve to put aside 
their rivalry and unite their forces against them. The outcome of a 
conference was an alliance, — sanctioned by the assembly of the 
plebs, — known as the Second Triumvirate 1 (43 B.C.). 

The plans of the triumvirs were infamous. A general proscription, 
such as had marked the coming to power of Sulla, was resolved upon. 

It was agreed that each should give 
up to the assassin such friends of 
his as had incurred the ill-will of 
either of the other triumvirs. Under 
this arrangement Octavian gave up 
his friend Cicero — who had in- 
curred the hatred of Antony by op- 
posing his schemes — and allowed 
his name to be put at the head of 
the list of the proscribed. 

The friends of the orator urged 
him to flee the country. " Let me 
die," said he, "in my fatherland, 
which I have so often saved ! " His 
attendants were hurrying him, half 
unwilling, towards the coast, when 
his pursuers came up and dispatched 
him in the litter in which he was 
being carried. His head was taken 
to Rome and set up in front of the 
Rostra, " from which he had so 
often addressed the people with his eloquent appeals for liberty." It 
is told that Fulvia, the wife of Antony, ran her gold bodkin through 
the tongue in revenge for the bitter Philippics it had uttered against 
her husband. The right hand of the victim — the hand that had 
penned the eloquent orations — was nailed to the Rostra. 

Cicero was but one victim among many hundreds. All the dreadful 
scenes of the days of Sulla were reenacted. Two thousand knights 

1 See above, p. 94, n. 1. 




Fig. 22. Cicero. (Madrid) 



§117] LAST STRUGGLE OF THE REPUBLIC 103 

and between two and three hundred senators were murdered. The 
estates of the wealthy were confiscated and sold at public auction. 

117. Last Struggle of the Republic at Philippi (42 B.C.): the 
Roman World in the Hands of Antony and Octavian. The friends 
of the old Republic and the enemies of the triumvirs were meanwhile 
rallying in the East. Brutus and Cassius were the animating spirits. 
Octavian and Antony, as soon as they had disposed of their enemies 
in Italy, crossed the Adriatic into Greece to disperse the forces of 
the republicans there. 

At Philippi, in Thrace, the hostile armies met (42 B.C.). In two 
successive engagements the new levies of the liberators were cut to 
pieces, and both Brutus and Cassius, believing the cause of the 
Republic forever lost, committed suicide. It was, indeed, the last 
effort of the Republic. The history of the events that lie between 
the action at Philippi and the establishment of the Empire is simply 
a record of the struggles among the triumvirs for the possession of 
the prize of supreme power. After various redistributions of prov- 
inces, Lepidus was at length expelled from the triumvirate, and then 
the Roman world was again, as in the times of Caesar and Pompey, 
in the hands of two masters — Antony in the East and Octavian in 
the West. 

118. Antony and Cleopatra. After the battle of Philippi Antony 
went into Asia for the purpose of settling the affairs of the provinces 
and vassal states there. At Tarsus, in Cilicia, he met Cleopatra, the 
famous queen of Egypt. Antony was completely fascinated, as had 
been the great Caesar before him, by the witchery of the " Serpent 
of the Nile." Enslaved by her enchantments and charmed by her 
brilliant wit, in the pleasure of her company he forgot all else — 
ambition and honor and country. 

119. The Battle of Actium (31 B.C.). Affairs could not long con- 
tinue in their present course. Antony had put away his faithful wife 
Octavia, sister of Octavian, for the beautiful Cleopatra. It was whis- 
pered at Rome, and not without truth, that he proposed to make 
Alexandria the capital of the Roman world, and announce Caesarion, 
son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as the heir of the Empire. All 
Rome was stirred. It was evident that a struggle was at hand in 



104 LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§120 

which the question for decision would be whether the West should 
rule the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were instinctively 
turned to Octavian as the defender of Italy and the supporter of the 
sovereignty of the Eternal City. 

Both parties made the most gigantic preparations for the inevitable 
conflict. Octavian met the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra 
just off the promontory of Actium, on the western coast of Greece. 
While the issue of the battle that there took place was yet undecided, 
Cleopatra turned her galley in flight. The Egyptian ships, to the 
number of fifty, followed her example. Antony, as soon as he per- 
ceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all else and followed in 
her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the fleeing queen, the 
infatuated man was received aboard her vessel and became her 
partner in the disgraceful flight. 

The abandoned fleet, still fighting bravely, was destroyed, and the 
army surrendered to Octavian. The conqueror was now sole master 
of the civilized world. From this decisive battle (31 B.C.) are usually 
dated the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire. 
Some historians, however, make the establishment of the Empire 
date from the year 27 B.C., as it was not until then that Octavian was 
formally invested with imperial powers. 

120. Death of Antony and of Cleopatra ; Egypt becomes a Roman 
Province. Octavian pursued Antony to Egypt, where the latter, de- 
serted by his army and informed by a messenger from the false 
queen that she was dead, committed suicide. 

Cleopatra then sought to enslave Octavian with her charms ; but 
failing in this, and becoming convinced that he proposed to take her 
to Rome that she might there grace his triumph, she took her own 
life, being in the thirty-eighth year of her age. With the death of 
Cleopatra the noted dynasty of the Ptolemies came to an end. 
Egypt was henceforth a province of the Roman state. 

Selections from the Sources. Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus and Julius 
Ccesar. Appian, The Civil Wars, bk. ii, chap, xviii (the panic in Rome after 
Caesar's death). Cicero, Letters to Atticus (Loeb Classical Library), bk. vii, 
letters 1-26. Munro's Source Book, pp. 1 00-141, 217-220; Davis's Readings 
(Rome), pp. 85-166. 



REFERENCES 105 

Secondary Works. Heitland, vol. ii, chaps, xxxv-xlvii ; vol. iii, chaps, 
xlviii-lxi. Greenidge, History of Rome, vol. 'i. Ferrero, The Greatness and 
the Decline of Rome, vols, i-iii ; vol. iv (chaps, i-vi). Merivale, The Fall of the 
Roman Republic. Beesly, The Gracchi, Marins and Sulla. Pelham, Outlines 
of Roman History, pp. 201-258, 333-397. Gilman, Stoty of Rome, chaps, xii, 
xiii. Abbott, Roman Political Institutions, chaps, vi, vii. Mommsen, vol. iv 
(read chap, xi, "The Old Republic and the New Monarchy"). Oman, Seven 
Roman Statesmen of the Republic. Strachan- DAVIDSON, Cicero and the Fall 
of the Roman Republic. Trollope, The Life of Cicero. Fowler, fu litis Ccesar. 
Holmes, Ccesar's Conquest of Gaul (for advanced students). Long, The Decline 
of the Roman Republic (for general reference). 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Roman slavery: Johnston, The Private Life 
of the Romans, chap, v, pp. 87-1 11. 2. Marcus Livius Drusus, the champion of 
the Italians (consult by index any comprehensive history of Rome). 3. Cicero 
and his friends as admirers of things Greek : MahafTy, The Greek World tinder 
Roman Sway, chap. vi. 4. The Conspiracy of Catiline : Church, Roman Life 
in the Days of Cicero, chap. vii. 5. Causes of the fall of the Republic : How 
and Leigh, History of Rome, chap, xxxi ; Seignobos (Wilde ed.), History of 
Ancient Civilization, pp. 274-278. 



THIRD PERIOD — ROME AS AN EMPIRE 

(31 B.C.-476 A.D.) 

I. The Principate 

(31B.C.-284A.D.) 

CHAPTER VII 

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE AND THE 
PRINCIPATE OF AUGUSTUS CJESAR 

(31B.C.-14 A.D.) 

121. The Character of the Imperial Government; the Dyarchy. 

The hundred years of strife which ended with the battle of Actium 
left the Roman Republic, exhausted and helpless, in the hands of one 
wise enough and strong enough to remold its crumbling fragments 
in such a manner that the state, which seemed ready to fall to pieces, 
might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. It was a 
great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy and chaos, 
a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of perpetuity and 
strength. '" The establishment of the Roman Empire," says Merivale, 
" was, after all, the greatest political work that any human being ever 
wrought. The achievements of Alexander, of Caesar, of Charlemagne, 
of Napoleon are not to be compared with it for a moment." 

Soon after his return from the East, Octavian laid down the ex- 
traordinary powers which he, as sole master of the legions, had been 
exercising. Then the Senate, acting doubtless in accordance with a 
previous understanding or the known wishes of Octavian, reinvested 
him with virtually the same powers but with republican titles ; for, 
mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar, Octavian saw to it that the really 
absolute power which he received under the new arrangements was 

106 



§121] 



CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT 



107 




veiled under the forms of the old Republic. He did not take the title 
of king. He knew how hateful to the people that name had been 
since the ex- 
pulsion of the 
Tarquins, and 
he was mindful 
how many of the best 
men of Rome, in- 
cluding the great Julius 
had perished because they gave 
the people reason to think that 
they were aiming at the regal 
power. Nor did he take the title 
of dictator, a name that since the 
time of Sulla had been almost as 
intolerable to the people as that 
of king. But he adopted or ac- 
cepted the title of Imperator, — 
whence the name Emperor, — a 
title which, although it carried 
with it the absolute authority of 
the commander of the legions, 
still had clinging to it no odious 
memories. He also received from 
the Senate the honorary surname 
of Augustus, a title that hitherto 
had been sacred to the gods, and 
hence was free from all sinister 
associations. A monument of 
this act was erected in the cal- 
endar. It was decreed by the 
Senate that the sixth month of 
the Roman year should be called 
Augustus (whence our August) 
in commemoration of the Imperator, an act in imitation of that by 
which the preceding month had been given the name Julius (whence 




Fig. 23. Augustus. (Vatican 
Museum) 

This statue of Augustus is regarded as 
one of the best of Roman portraits 



108 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE [§121 

our July) in honor of Julius Caesar. Common usage also bestowed 
upon Octavian the name of Princeps, which was only a designation 
of courtesy and dignity and which simply pointed out him who bore 
it as the " first citizen " of a free republic. 

And as Octavian was careful not to wound the sensibilities of the 
lovers of the old Republic by assuming any title that in any way 
suggested regal authority and prerogative, so was he careful not to 
arouse their opposition by abolishing any of the republican offices or 
assemblies. He allowed all the old magistracies to exist as hereto- 
fore ; but he himself absorbed and exercised the most important part 
of their powers and functions. 

Likewise all the popular assemblies remained and were convened 
as usual to hold elections and to vote on measures laid before them. 
But Octavian, having been invested with both the consular and the 
tribunician power, had the right to summon them, to place in nomi- 
nation persons for the various offices, 1 and to initiate legislation. The 
titular consuls and tribunes -also, it is true, had this right, but after 
the new order of things had become firmly established during the 
long rule of Augustus they dared not exercise it without the concur- 
rence of the new master of the state. Consequently the deliberations 
of the popular assemblies were really idle forms. 

The Senate still existed, 2 but it was shorn of all real independence 
by the predominating influence of its first member, the Princeps. 
Octavian endeavored to raise the body to a higher standard. He 
reduced the number of senators — which had been raised by Antony 
to one thousand — to six hundred, and struck from the rolls the names 
of unworthy members and of obstinate republicans. 

1 The consuls were generally nominated by Augustus, and in order that a large 
number of his friends and favorites might be amused with the dignity, the term of 
office was reduced to a shorter period. At a later time the length of the consulate was 
shortened to two or three months. 

2 Since in the early Empire the Senate under the constitutional arrangements of 
Augustus shared the government with the emperor, the government of this period is 
by some called a dyarchy, which means a government by two persons. As a matter of 
fact, however, the Senate had only so much authority as the ruling emperor chose to give 
it. Some emperors, like Augustus, treated the body with respect and allowed it a real 
share in the government! while others rejected the theory of a joint rule of Princeps 
and Senate and ruled practically alone. 



§122] THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCES 109 

We may summarize all these changes * by saying that the monarchy 
abolished five hundred years before this was now slowly rising again 
amidst the old forms of the Republic. This is what was actually 
taking place ; for the chief powers and prerogatives of the ancient 
king, which during the republican period had been gradually broken 
up and lodged in the hands of a great number of magistrates, col- 
leges, and assemblies, were now being once more gathered up in the 
hands of a single man. This drift towards the unrestrained rule of a 
single person is the essence of the constitutional history of Rome for 
the first three centuries of the Empire ; by the end of that period the 
concentration of all power in the hands of the Princeps was com- 
plete, and the veiled monarchy of Octavian emerges in the unveiled 
oriental monarchy of Diocletian (sect. 146). 

122. The Government of the Provinces. The revolution that 
brought in the Empire effected a great improvement in the condi- 
tion of the provincials. The government of all those provinces that 
were in an unsettled state and that needed the presence of a large 
military force Augustus 2 withdrew from the Senate and took the 
management of their affairs in his own hands. These were known as 
the proviiices of Ccesar. Instead of these countries being ruled by 
practically irresponsible proconsuls and propraetors, they were hence- 
forth ruled by legates of the emperor, who were removable at his 
will and answerable to him for the faithful and honest discharge of 
the duties of their offices. Salaries were attached to their positions, 
and thus the scandalous abuses which had grown up in connection 
with the earlier system of self-payment through fees, requisitions, and 
the like devices were swept away. 

The more tranquil provinces were still left under the control of 
the Senate, and were known as public provinces. These also profited 
by the change, since the emperor extended his care to them, and, 
as the judge of last appeal, righted wrongs and punished flagrant 
offenders against right and justice. 

1 Respecting all these governmental arrangements Professor Greenidge comments 
as follows : " Such was the settlement which was greeted,* officially and unofficially, as a 
restoration of the Republic, but which later writers held, with equal reason, to be the 
commencement of the legitimate monarchy" {Roman Public Life, 1901, p. 339). 

2 From this on we shall refer to Octavian by this his honorary surname. 



no THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE [§123 

123. The Defeat of Varus by the Germans under Arminius (9 a.d.). 

The reign of Augustus was marked by one of the most terrible dis- 
asters that ever befell the Roman legions. The general Quintilius 
Varus had made the mistake of supposing that he could rule the 
freedom-loving Germans, who had in part been brought under 
Roman authority, just as he had governed the servile Asiatics of 
the Eastern provinces, and had thereby stirred them, to determined 
revolt. While the general was leading an army of three legions, 
numbering altogether about twenty thousand men, through the almost 
pathless depths of the Teutoburg Wood, he was surprised by the bar- 
barians under their brave chieftain Hermann — called Arminius by 
the Romans — and his army destroyed. 

The disaster caused great consternation at Rome. Augustus, 
wearied and worn already with the cares of empire and domestic 
affliction, was inconsolable. He paced his palace in agony, and kept 
exclaiming, " O Varus, Varus ! give me back my legions ! give me 
back my legions ! " 

The victory of Arminius over the Romans was an event of great 
significance in the history of European civilization. The Germans 
were on the point of being completely subjugated and put in the 
way of being Romanized, as the Celts of Gaul had already been. 
Had this occurred, the history of Europe would have been changed ; 
for the Germanic element is the one that has given shape and color 
to the important events of the last fifteen hundred years. Among 
these barbarians, too, were our ancestors. Had Rome succeeded in 
exterminating or enslaving them, Britain, as Creasy says, might never 
have received the name of England, and the great English nation 
might never have had an existence. <. 

124. Literature and the Arts under Augustus. The reign of 
Augustus lasted forty-four years, from 31 e.c. to 1 4 a. d. Although 
the government of Augustus, as we have learned, was disturbed by 
some troubles upon the frontiers, still, never before, perhaps, had the 
civilized world enjoyed so long a period of general rest from the tur- 
moil of war. Three times during this auspicious reign the gates of 
the Temple of Janus at Rome, which were open in time of war and 
closed in time of peace, were shut. Only twice before during the 



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CYRENAICA 



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§ 125] SOCIAL LIFE AT ROME UNDER AUGUSTUS 1 1 1 



existence of the city had they been closed, so constantly had the 
Roman people been engaged in war. 

This long repose from the strife that had filled all the preceding 
centuries was favorable to the upspringing of literature and art. 
Under the patronage of the emperor and that, of his favorite minister 
Maecenas, poets and writers flourished and made this the Golden 
Age of Latin literature. Many who lamented the fall of the Republic 
sought solace in the pursuit of letters ; and in this they were encour- 
aged by Augustus, as it gave occupation to many restless spirits that 
might otherwise have been en- 
gaged in political intrigues against 
his government. The four great 
names in the literature of the 
period are those of Vergil, Horace, 
Ovid, and Livy. 1 

Augustus was also a munificent 
patron of architecture and art. He 
adorned the capital with many 
splendid structures, including tem- 
ples, theaters, porticoes, baths, and 
aqueducts. He said proudly, " I 
found Rome a city of brick ; I left 
it a city of marble." The popula- 
tion of the city at this time was 
probably about one million. Two 
other cities of the Empire — Antioch and Alexandria — are thought 
to have had each about this same number of citizens. These cities, too, 
were made magnificent with splendid architecture and works of art. 

125. Social Life at Rome under Augustus. One of the most re- 
markable features of life at the capital during the reign of Augustus 
was the vast number of Roman citizens who were recipients of the 
state doles of corn. There were at least two hundred thousand male 
beneficiaries of this public charity, 2 which means that upwards of 

1 For brief notices of the works of these writers, see sects. 186, 189. 

2 The number had risen as high as 320,000, but both Julius Caesar and Augustus 
purged the lists of unworthy claimants. 




Fig. 24. M^cenas. (From a 
medallion) 



112 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE [§126 

half a million people in the capital were unable or unwilling to earn 
independently their daily bread. The purchase of immense quantities 
of corn needed for these free distributions was one of the heaviest 
drains upon the imperial treasury. 

Another striking feature of life at Rome at this time was the 
growing infatuation of the people for the bloody spectacles of the 
amphitheater. The emperor himself gives the following account of 
the spectacles that he presented : " Three times in my own name, 
and five times in that of my sons or grandsons, I have given gladia- 
torial exhibitions ; in these exhibitions about ten thousand men have 
fought. . . . Twenty-six times in my own name, or in that of my 
sons or grandsons, I have given hunts of African wild beasts in 
the circus, the forum, the amphitheatres, and about thirty-five hundred 
beasts have been killed. 

" I gave the people the spectacle of a naval battle beyond the 
Tiber, where now is the grove of the Caesars. For this purpose 
an excavation was made eighteen hundred feet long and twelve 
hundred wide. In this contest thirty beaked ships, triremes or 
biremes, were engaged, besides more of smaller size. About three 
thousand men fought in these vessels in addition to the rowers." 1 

Still another phase of social life at Rome which arrests our 
attention was the loosening of the family ties.Cl^iyorcej^Jiad.jnulti- 
plied, and the family seemed about to be dissolved, as had been the 
larger groups of the tribe and the gens. Augustus strove to arrest 
this downward tendency by edicts and laws in encouragement of 
marriage and in restraint of divorces. But the trouble was too 
deep-seated in the failing moral and religious life of the times to 
be reached and remedied by any measures of state?) 

126. The Religious Life. The decay of religious faith had been 
going on for a long time. Augustus did all in his power to arrest 
the process. He restored the temples and shrines that had fallen 
into decay, renewed the ancient sacrifices, and erected new temples, 
not only at Rome but in every part of the Empire. The unauthorized 

1 MonumentumAncyranum, chaps, xxii, xxiii ; edited by William Fairley, Ph. D., Trans- 
lations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, published by the 
Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania. See Selections, p. 78. 



§ 127] DEATH AND DEIFICATION OF AUGUSTUS 1 1 3 

foreign cults, particularly those from the Orient, which had been intro- 
duced at the capital, he drove out, and strove to awaken in the people 
a fresh veneration for the ancestral deities of Rome. 

The Greek Apollo, however, was excepted from the list of pro- 
scribed alien gods. In honor of this great deity, who Augustus 
believed had secured him the victory at Actium, the emperor erected 
a splendid temple at Rome, and caused to be transported from Egypt 
and set up in the capital an immense obelisk, the emblem in Egyptian 
theology of the sun-god. 

127. The Death and Deification of Augustus. In the year 14 a. d. 
Augustus died, having reached the seventy-sixth year of his age. His 
last words to the friends gathered about his bedside were, ^ If I have 
acted well my part in life's drama, greet my departure with your 
applause." By decree of the Senate, divine worship was accorded 
to him and temples were erected in his honor. 

The cult of Augustus had developed, particularly in the Orient, 
while he was yet living. At first flush this worship of Caesar seems 
to us strange and impious. But it will not seem so if we put our- 
selves at the point of view of the ancients. In the Orient the king 
had very generally been looked upon as in a sense divine. Thus in 
Egypt the Pharaoh was believed to be of the very race of the gods. 
It was natural, then, that the subjects of Rome in the Eastern 
provinces should look upon the head of the Empire as one lifted 
above ordinary mortals and possessed of divine qualities. This way 
of thinking caused the provincials of the Orient to become sincere 
and zealous worshipers in the temples and before the altars of the 
" divine Caesar." 

From the East the cult spread to the West, and became a favorite 
worship of the masses everywhere. Its establishment had far-reaching 
consequences, as we shall see ; since at the very time that the polythe- 
istic religion of the Graeco-Roman world was taking on this form, 
there was springing up in a remote corner of the Empire a new 
religion with which this imperial cult must necessarily come into 
violent . conflict. 

For it was in the midst of the happy reign of Augustus, when pro- 
found peace prevailed throughout the civilized world, — the doors of 



114 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE [§127 

the Temple of Janus having been closed (sect. 17), — that Christ was 
born in Bethlehem of Judea. The event was unheralded at Rome ; 
yet it was, as we have intimated, filled with profound significance not 
only for the Roman Empire but for the world. Of the relation of 
Christianity to paganism, and particularly to the new cult of the 
Roman emperor, we shall speak later (sect. 139). 



TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF ROMAN CITIZENS AT DIFFERENT 
PERIODS OF THE REPUBLIC AND THE EMPIRE 1 

Citizens of 
Military Age 

Under the later kings (Mommsen's estimate) 20,000 

338 b. c i65,ooo 2 

293 b.c 262,322 

251 b.c - 279,797 

220 B.C. 270,213 

204 B.C 2 14,000 3 

164 B.C 327,022 

115 B - C 394,336 

70 B.C. 900,000 

27 B.C 4,063,000* 

8 b.c .' 4,233,000 

i3 A - D 4>937>ooo 

47 A.D. (under Claudius) _ 6,944,000 

1 These figures embody what is perhaps the most important matter in Roman history, 
namely, the gradual admission of aliens to the full rights of the city until every freeman 
in the civilized world had become a citizen of Rome. This movement we have endeav- 
ored to trace in the text. Consult particularly sects. 42, 44, 92, 93, 114, 130, 143. 

2 These figures do not include the inhabitants of the Latin colonies nor of the 
allied states. 

3 The falling off from the number of the preceding census of 220 B.C. was a result 
of the Hannibalic War. 

4 These figures and those of the enumerations for 8 B.C. and 13 a.d. are from the 
Monumentum Ancyramnn. The increased number given by the census of 70 B.C. over 
that of 115 B.C. registers the result of the admission to the city of the Italians at the 
end of the Social War (sect. 93). The tremendous leap upwards of the figures between 
70 and 27 B. c. is probably to be explained not wholly by the admission during this period 
of aliens to the franchise but also, possibly, by the failure of the censors of the repub- 
lican period to include in their enumerations the Roman citizens living in places remote 

'from the capital. It is the opinion of E. Meyer, however, that the census of 27 B.C. 
included the whole Roman citizen population (men, women, and children) while the 
republican census gave only the number of the male citizens above seventeen years 
of age. 



REFERENCES 1 1 5 

Selections from the Sources. Monumentum Ancyranum {Res Gestce Divi 

Augusti — "The Deeds of Augustus"), vol. v, No. 7, of the Translations 
and Reprints from the Original Sottrces of European History, published by 
the Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania. This forms 
one of the most important of the original sources for the reign of Augustus. 
It is a long bilingual inscription (Latin and Greek) discovered in 1595 on the 
walls of a ruined temple at Ancyra (whence the name), in Asia Minor. The 
inscription is a copy of a tablet which was set up in front of the mausoleum 
of Augustus at Rome. Tacitus, Annals, i, 2 (how Augustus made himself 
supreme at Rome). Munro, Source Book, pp. 143-148; Davis's Readings 
(Rome), pp. 166-185. 

References (Modern). Ferrero, The Greatness and Decline of Rome, vols, iv 
(chaps, vii-xi), v. Inge, Society in Rome tinder the Ccesars, chap, i, " Religion" 
(deals with the decay of Roman religion and the establishment at the capital 
of oriental cults). Capes, The Early Empire, chap, i, " Augustus." Pelham, 
Ozitlines of Roman History, bk. v, chap. iii. Bury, The Roman Empire 
(Student's Series), pp. 1-163. Firth, Augustus Ccesar. Thierry, Tableau de 
V Empire Ro?nain (teachers and mature students will find this work very sug- 
gestive ; the book might be entitled " Rome's Place in Universal History"). 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. In theory the government of the early 
Empire was a dyarchy — a joint rule of the emperor and the Senate. How 
real was the participation of the Senate in the government ? 2. The signifi- 
cance of the defeat of Varus : Creasy, Decisive Battles of the World, chap. v. 
3. The life of the court under the early Empire : Friedlander, Roman Life 
and Manners, vol. i, pp. 70-97. 4. Means of communication: Friedlander, 
Roman Life and Manners, vol. i, pp. 268-322 ; Davis, The Influence of Wealth 
in Imperial Rome, pp. 80-105. 



CHAPTER VIII 
FROM TIBERIUS TO THE ACCESSION OF DIOCLETIAN 

(14-284 A. D.) 

128. Principate of Tiberius (14-37 A.D.). Tiberius, the adopted 
stepson of Augustus, became his successor. One of his first acts 
was to take away from the popular assemblies the right which they 
still nominally possessed of electing the yearly magistrates, and to 
bestow the same upon the Senate, which, however, as a rule elected 
candidates presented by the emperor. This meant practically the 
end of the participation of the people in the government of the state. 

During the first years of his reign Tiberius used his virtually 
unrestrained authority with moderation, being seemingly desirous of 
promoting the best interests of all classes in his vast empire ; and 
even to the last his government of the provinces was just and benefi- 
cent. The spirit in which he ruled the provincials is shown in his 
reply to a governor of a province who urged him to increase the 
tribute : " A good shepherd," he said, " should shear and not flay 
his sheep." * 

But unfortunately Tiberius was of a morose, suspicious, and jealous 
nature, and the opposition which he experienced in the capital caused 
him, in his contest with his political and personal enemies, soon to 
institute there a most high-handed tyranny, which made the latter 
part of his reign a tragedy. 2 An old law, known as the Law of 
Majestas, which made it a capital offense for any one to speak a 
careless word, or even to entertain an unfriendly thought, respecting 
the emperor, was oppressively enforced. Rewards were offered to 
informers, and hence sprang up a class of persons called delators, 

1 Suetonius, Tiberhis, xxxii. 

2 Eduard Meyer characterizes Tiberius as "the most pathetic figure in history." He 
was misrepresented by Tacitus. 

n6 



§128] PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS 1 17 

who acted as spies upon society. Often false charges were made to 
gratify personal enmity ; and many, especially of the wealthy class, 
were accused and put to death that their property might be confiscated. 

Tiberius appointed as his chief minister and as commander of the 
praetorian guard 1 one Sejanus, a person of the lowest and most 
corrupt life. Then he retired to Capreae, an islet in the Bay of 
Naples, and left to this man the management of affairs at the capital. 
For a time Sejanus ruled at Rome very much according to his own 
will. He murdered some of the best citizens, and caused possible 
heirs to the throne to be put out of the way in order that Tiberius 
might be constrained to name him as his successor. He even grew 
so bold as to plan the assassination of the emperor himself. His 
designs, however, became known to Tiberius, and the infamous and 
disloyal minister was arrested and put to death. During the remainder 
of his principate Tiberius ruled sternly, disdainfully indifferent to the 
love of his subjects. " I care not that the people hate me," he is 
represented as saying, "if they approve my deeds." 

It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote 
province of the Roman Empire, the Saviour was crucified. Animated 
by an unparalleled missionary spirit, his followers traversed the length 
and breadth of the Empire, preaching everywhere the " glad tidings." 
Men's loss of faith in the gods* of the old mythologies, the softening 
and liberalizing influence of Greek culture, the unification of the whole 
civilized world under a single government, the widespread suffering 
and the inexpressible weariness of the oppressed and servile classes — 
all these things had prepared the soil for the seed of the new doctrines. 
In less than three centuries the Empire had become Christian not 
only in name but also very largely in fact. This conversion of Rome, 
of which we have here during the rule of Tiberius the beginning, is 
one of the most important events in all history. A new element is 
here introduced into civilization, an element which has given color 
and character to much of the history of all the succeeding centuries. 

1 This was a corps of select soldiers which had been created by Augustus, and which 
was designed for a sort of bodyguard to the emperor. It numbered about ten thousand 
men, and was given a permanent camp alongside the city walls and near one of the 
gates. It soon became a formidable power in the state and made and unmade emperors 
at will. 



Ii8 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN [§129 

129. Gaius Caesar or Caligula (37-41 a.d.). Tiberius was followed 
by Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula. Caligula's reign was, in 
the main, a tissue of follies. After a few months spent in arduous 
application to the affairs of the Empire, during which time his many 
acts of kindness and piety won for him the affection of all classes, 
the mind of the young emperor seemingly became disordered. He 
soon gave himself up to a life of dissipation. The cruel sports 
of the amphitheater possessed for him a strange fascination. He 
even entered the lists himself and fought as a gladiator upon the 
arena. After four years his insane career was brought to a close by 
some of the officers of the praetorian guard whom he had wantonly 
insulted. 

130. The Rule of Claudius (41-54 a.d.). The successor of Caligula 
was his uncle, Claudius, 1 a man of strangely inconsistent moods and 
acts. At times his acts were those of a sagacious statesman and 
again those of an imbecile or an insane person. 

His principate was made a landmark in the constitutional history 
of Rome by the admission of the Gallic nobles to the Roman Senate 
and the magistracies of the city. Tacitus has given us a paraphrase 
of a speech which the emperor made before the Senate in answer to 
the objections which were urged against such a course. The emperor 
touched first upon the fact that his own most ancient ancestor, 
although of Sabine origin, had been received into the city and made 
a member of the patrician order. This liberal policy of the fathers 
ought, he thought, to be followed by himself in his conduct of public 
affairs. Men of special talent, wherever found, should be trans- 
ferred to Rome. " Nor am I unmindful of the fact," he continued, 
" that . . . from Etruria and Lucania and all Italy persons have been 
received into the Roman Senate. Finally, the city was extended to 
the Alps, so that not single individuals but entire provinces and tribes 
were given the Roman name. Is it a matter of regret to us that 
the Balbi came to us from Spain ? that men not less distinguished 
migrated to Rome from Gallia Narbonensis? The descendants of 
these immigrants remain among us, nor do they yield to us in their 

1 As in the case of Caligula, Claudius was proclaimed emperor by the insolent 
praetorians. The Senate was powerless to do otherwise than to ratify their action. 



§131] RULE OF NERO 119 

devotion to the fatherland. What other cause was there of the down- 
fall of Sparta and of Athens, states once powerful in arms, save this 
— that they closed their gates against the conquered as aliens ? " 1 
The generous policy here advocated by Claudius was acted upon, at 
least as to a part of the Gallic nobility, who were given admission to 
the Roman Senate. 

The successors of Claudius in general followed his example. They 
not only admitted foreigners to the Senate, but freely granted Latin 
and Roman rights to provincials. This liberal policy was justified by 
its fruit. The provinces gave to Rome several of her best emperors. 
Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius were of Spanish origin, and 
Antoninus Pius was of Gallic descent. 2 

In the field of military enterprise the principate of Claudius was 
especially signalized by the conquest of Britain. Nearly a century 
had now passed since the invasion of the island by Julius Caesar. 
Claudius, through his generals Plautius and Vespasian, subjugated 
the southern part of the island and made it into a Roman province 
under the name of Britannia (43 a.d.). Many towns soon sprang up 
here, which in time became important centers of Roman trade and 
culture, and some of which were the beginnings of great English 
towns of to-day. ■ 

The rule of Claudius was further distinguished by the construction 
of many important works of a utilitarian character. The Claudian 
Aqueduct, which the emperor completed, was a stupendous work, 
bringing water to the city from a distance of forty-five miles. 

Throughout his life Claudius was ruled by intriguing favorites 
and unworthy wives. For his fourth wife he married the "wicked 
Agrippina," who secured his death by means of a dish of poisoned 
mushrooms, in order to make place for the succession of her son 
Nero, then only sixteen years of age. 

131. Rule of Nero (54-68 a.d.). Nero was fortunate in having for 
his preceptor the great philosopher and moralist Seneca (sect. 190); 
but never was teacher more unfortunate in his pupil. For five years 

1 Tacitus, Annals, xi, 23. Compare these sentiments of Claudius with those of Titus 
Manlius (sect. 44). 

2 See F. R. Abbott, Roman Political Institutions (1901), p. 309. 



120 



FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 



[§131 



Nero, under the influence of Seneca and Burrhus, the latter the com- 
mander of the praetorians, ruled with moderation and equity ; then 
gradually breaking away from the guidance of his tutor Seneca, he 
entered upon a career filled with crimes of almost incredible enormity. 
It was in the tenth year of his reign (64 a.d.) that the so-called 
Great Fire laid more than half of Rome in ashes. For six days and 
nights the flames surged like a sea through the valleys and about 
the base of the hills covered by the city. It was rumored that Nero 

had ordered the conflagration to be 
lighted in order to clear the ground 
so that he could rebuild the city on a 
more magnificent plan, and that from 
the roof of his palace he had enjoyed 
the spectacle and amused himself by 
singing a poem of his own composi- 
tion entitled the Sack of Troy. To 
turn attention from himself, Nero ac- 
cused the Christians of having con- 
spired to burn the city in order to 
help out their prophecies. The doc- 
trine which was taught by some of 
the new sect respecting the second 
coming of Christ and the destruction 
of the world by fire lent color to the 
charge. The persecution that followed was one of the most cruel 
recorded in the history of the Church. Many victims were covered 
with pitch and burned at night to serve as torches in the imperial 
gardens. Tradition preserves the names of the apostles Peter and 
Paul as victims of this persecution. 

The emperor was extravagant, and consequently always in need 
of money, which he secured through murders and confiscations. 
Among his victims was his old preceptor Seneca, who was im- 
mensely rich. On the charge of treason, he condemned him to 
death and confiscated his estate. At last the Senate declared him 
a public enemy and condemned him to death by scourging, to avoid 
which, aided by a servant, he took his own life. 




Fig. 25. Vespasian. (Museum 
at Naples) 



§132] 



GALBA, OTHO, AND VITELLIUS 



121 



132. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (68-69 a. d.). These three names 
are usually grouped together, as their reigns were all short and 

uneventful. The succession, upon the 
death of Nero and the extinction in him 
of the Julian-Claudian line, was in dis- 
pute, and the legions in different quarters 
supported the claims of their favorite 
leaders. One after another the three 
aspirants named were killed in bloody 
struggles for the imperial purple. The 
last, Vitellius, was hurled from the throne 
by the soldiers of Vespasian, the old and 
beloved commander of the legions in 
Palestine, which were at this time engaged in war with the Jews. 

133. Vespasian (69-79 a.d.). The accession of Flavius Vespasian 
marks the beginning of a period, embracing three reigns, known as 
the Flavian Age (69-96 a.d.). One of the most memorable events 
of Vespasian's reign was the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. 




Fig. 26. u Jud/ea Capta" 
(Coin of Vespasian) 




N'i 



Fig. 27. Triumphal Procession from the Arch of Titus. (From a 

photograph) 

Showing the seven-branched candlestick and other trophies from the temple at Jerusalem 



122 



FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 



[§134 



After one of the most harassing sieges recorded in history, the city 
was taken by Titus, son of Vespasian. A vast multitude of Jews 
who had crowded into the city — it was the period of the Pass- 
over — perished. In imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, Titus robbed the 
temple of its sacred utensils and bore them away as trophies. Upon 
the triumphal arch at Rome that bears his name may be seen at 
the present day the sculptured representation of the seven-branched 
golden candlestick, which was one of the memorials of the war. 




Fig. 28. A Street in Pompeii. (From a photograph) 



After a most prosperous reign of ten years Vespasian died, 79 a. d., 
the first emperor after Augustus who had not met with a violent death. 

134. Titus (79-81 a.d.). In a short reign of two years Titus won 
the title of " the Friend and the Delight of Mankind." He was 
unwearied in acts of benevolence and in the bestowal of favors. 
Having let a day slip by without some act of kindness performed, 
he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, " I have lost a day." 

Titus completed and dedicated the great Flavian amphitheater be- 
gun by his father, Vespasian. This vast structure, which seated over 
forty thousand x spectators, is better known as the Colosseum — a 

1 The old estimate of 80,000 is now regarded as an exaggeration. 






§135] 



DOMITIAN 



123 



name given it either because of its gigantic proportions, or on ac- 
count of a colossal statue of Nero which happened to stand near it. 
The reign of Titus, though so short, was signalized by two great 
disasters. The first was a conflagration at Rome, which was almost 
as calamitous as the Great Fire in the reign of Nero. The second 
was the destruction, by an eruption of Vesuyius, of the Campanian 
cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were buried beneath 
showers of cinders, ashes, and streams of volcanic mud. Pliny the 




Fig. 29. House of the Vetti at Pompeii. (From a photograph) 



Elder, the great naturalist, venturing through curiosity too near the 
mountain to investigate the phenomenon, lost his life. 1 

135. Domitian (81-96 a.d.). Titus was followed by his brother 
Domitian, whose rule, after the first few years of admirable govern- 
ment, became a merciless tyranny. During the reign, however, 
transactions of interest and importance were taking place on the 
northern frontier lines. In Britain the able commander Agricola, 

1 During the past century extensive excavations have uncovered a large part of 
Pompeii and revealed to us the streets, homes, theaters, baths, shops, temples, and 
various monuments of the ancient city — presenting to us a vivid picture of Roman life 
during the imperial period eighteen hundred years ago. 



124 



FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 



[§ 135 



the father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, subjected or crowded back 
the warlike tribes until he had extended the frontiers of the Empire 

far into what is now Scot- 
land. Then, as a protection 
against the incursions of the 
Caledonians, the ancestors 
of the Scottish Highlanders, 
he constructed a line of for- 
tresses from the Frith of 
Forth to the Frith of Clyde. 
Behind this shelter Roman 
civilization now began to 
develop rapidly in the new- 
formed province. 

Under this emperor took 
place what is known in 
Church history as " the 
second persecution of the 
Christians," who incurred 
Domitian's special hatred 
through refusal to burn in- 
cense before his statues. 
The name of the emperor's 
niece Domitilla has been 
preserved as one of the 
victims of this persecution. 
This is significant, since it 
shows that the new faith was 
thus early finding adherents 
among the higher classes, 
even in the royal family itself. 
Domitian was killed in his 
palace by members of his 




Fig. 30. Trajan. (From a statue in the 
museum at Naples) 

" All the imperial portraits of this age, as pre- 
served on coins and sculptures, are perfectly 
authentic, and the likenesses are consistent. In 
the British Museum the reader may see the 
features of these great Caesars as faithfully 
reproduced as those of British statesmen in the 
National Portrait Gallery." — Fowler 



own household. The Senate 
ordered his infamous name to be erased from the public monuments 
and to be blotted from the records of the Roman state. 



§136] 



THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS 



125 



136. The Five Good Emperors; Rule of Nerva (96-98 a. d.). The 

five emperors — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines — 
who succeeded Domitian were elected by the Senate, which during 
this period assumed something of its former influence in the affairs 
of the Empire. The wise and beneficent administration of the gov- 
ernment by these rulers, under whom the theory of a joint control 
by Princeps and Senate became something of a reality, won for 
them the distinction of being called " the five good emperors." This 
period probably marks the high tide of civilization in ancient times. 




Fig. 31. Bridge over the Danube, Built by Trajan. (From a relief on 

Trajan's Column) 

Nerva, who was an aged senator and an ex-consul, ruled paternally. 
He died after a short reign of sixteen months, and the scepter passed 
into the stronger hands of the able commander Trajan, whom Nerva 
had previously made his associate in the government. 

137. Trajan (98-117 a.d.). Trajan was a native of Spain and a 
soldier by profession and talent. He was the first provincial to sit 
in the seat of the Caesars. From this time forward provincials were 
to play a part of ever-increasing importance in the affairs of the 
Empire. It was the policy of Augustus — a policy adopted by most 
of his successors — to make the Danube in Europe and the Euphrates 
in Asia the limits of the Roman Empire in those respective quarters. 
But Trajan determined to push the frontiers of his dominions beyond 



126 



FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 



[§137 



both these rivers. In the early part of his reign he was busied in 
wars against the Dacians, a people dwelling north of the Lower 

Danube. These troublesome enemies 
were subjugated, and Dacia was made 
into a province. The modern name 
Rumania is a monument of this Roman 
conquest and colonization beyond the 
Danube. The Rumanians to-day speak 
a language that in its main elements is 
largely of Latin origin. 1 

As a memorial of his achievements 
the emperor erected, in what came to 
be known as Trajan's Forum, a splen- 
did marble shaft called Trajan's Column. 
To-day, after eighteen centuries, the 
great pillar is in almost perfect pres- 
ervation. It is one hundred and forty- 
seven feet high, and is wound from 
base to summit with a spiral band of 
sculptures containing more than twenty- 
five hundred human figures. Its pic- 
tured sides are the best and almost 
the only record we now possess of 
the Dacian wars of the emperor. 

In the latter years of his reign (114- 
116 a.d.) Trajan led his legions to the 
East, crossed the Euphrates, reduced 
Armenia, and wrested from the Par- 

thians most of the lands which had 

Fig. 32. Trajan's Column x , ,, , ,- r ,, . 

jL \ , , once formed the heart 01 the Assyrian 

(From a photograph) _ J 

„,,.„,. ,_ , - , , monarchy. Out of the territories thus 

A chiselled picture-book of the . J 

Dacian War, to which almost conquered Trajan made three new 

everywhere we lack the text." — 

Mommsen 

1 The Romanic-speaking peoples of Rumania 

and the neighboring regions number about ten millions. It seems probable that dur- 
ing mediaeval times there was a large immigration into the present Rumania of Latin- 
speaking people from the districts south of the Danube. 




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§138] HADRIAN 127 

provinces, which bore the ancient names of Armenia, Mesopotamia, 
and Assyria. Another province which he created in these remote 
regions was known as Arabia Petrsea, 1 which included the ancient 
Bible land of Edom with its celebrated capital Petra. 

To Trajan belongs the distinction of having extended the bound- 
aries of the Empire to the most distant points to which Roman 
ambition and prowess were ever able to push them. 

Respecting the rapid spread of Christianity at this time, the char- 
acter of the early professors of the new faith, and the light in which 
they were viewed by the rulers of the Roman world, we have very 
important evidence in a certain letter' written by Pliny the Younger 
(sect. 190) to the emperor in regard to the Christians of Pontus, in 
Asia Minor, of which remote province Pliny was governor. Pliny 
speaks of the new creed as a " contagious superstition that had seized 
not cities only but the lesser towns also, and the open country." Yet 
he could find no fault in the converts to the new doctrines. Notwith- 
standing this, however, because the Christians steadily refused to 
sacrifice to the Roman gods, he ordered many to be put to death 
for their " inflexible obstinacy." 

Trajan died 117 a.d. His principate, after that of Augustus, was 
the most fortunate that had befallen the lot of the Roman people. 

138. Hadrian (117-138 A.D.). Hadrian, a kinsman of Trajan, suc- 
ceeded him in the imperial office. He possessed great ability and 
displayed admirable moderation and good judgment in the adminis- 
tration of the government. He prudently abandoned the territory 
beyond the Euphrates that had been acquired by Trajan, and made 
that stream once more the eastern boundary of the Empire. 

1 The Roman province of Arabia Petraea corresponded roughly to the biblical Edom 
and Moab. Petra (probably the Se/a, " the Rock," of the Bible writers) was the strong- 
hold and capital of the former region. Its ruins lie in a vast natural amphitheater in the 
sterile mountains of Edom. The importance of the place was due to its control of sev- 
eral of the great commercial routes of the ancient East. It was a city of note in Hellen- 
istic times, and in the second and third centuries of our era enjoyed great prosperity 
under the Romans. Many of the later rock-cut tombs (of Graeco-Roman type) which 
line the high cliffs inclosing the site of the city were the tombs of Roman merchant 
princes and military officers. The exquisite rock-cutting shown in the illustration 
facing p. 130 (it probably dates from the first century A. D.) is one of the best-preserved 
rock-hewn facades to be seen to-day in any of the lands included within the boundaries 
of the old Roman Empire. 



128 



FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 



[§138 



More than fifteen years of his reign were spent by Hadrian in 
making tours of inspection through all the different provinces of the 
Empire. He visited Britain, and secured the Roman possessions there 
against the Picts and Scots by erecting a continuous wall, about 
seventy miles in length, across the island from the Tyne to the 
Solway Firth. This rampart was constructed some distance to the 
south of the line of fortified stations that had been established by 
Agricola (sect. 135). The Hadrian Wall, in places well preserved, 
and broken at intervals by the ruins of old watchtowers and stations, 




Fig. 33. The Hadrian Wall. (From a photograph) 



can still be traced over the low hills of the English moorlands almost 
from sea to sea. 1 There exists nowhere in the lands that once formed 
the provinces of the empire of Rome any more impressive memorial 
of her world-wide dominion than these ramparts, along which for 
three hundred years and more her sentinels kept watch and ward 
for civilization against the barbarian marauders of Caledonia. 

On the Continent, in the upper regions of the Rhine and the 
Danube, Hadrian likewise secured the frontier by constructing a pali- 
sade and a chain of forts extending from one river to the other. 

1 The best work on the rampart is J. C. Bruce's The Roman Wall (London, 185 1). 
Handbook to the Roman Wall, by the same author, is an abridgment of his larger work. 
One of the best-preserved sections of the wall can be easily reached from the Haltwhistle 
station on the railroad between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Carlisle. The student traveler 
in those parts should not fail to examine these interesting memorials of the Roman 
occupation of Britain. 



§139] 



THE ANTONINES 



129 



After his visit to Britain Hadrian returned to Gaul, and then in- 
spected in different tours all the remaining provinces of the Empire. 
Many of the cities which he visited he adorned with temples, theaters, 
and other buildings. Upon Athens, particularly, he lavished large 
sums in art embellishments, reviving in a measure the fading glories 
of the Periclean Age. 1 

In the year 132 the Jews in 
Palestine, who had in a measure 
recovered from the blow Titus 
had given their nation (sect. 
133), broke out in desperate re- 
volt, because of the planting of 
a Roman colony upon the al- 
most desolate site of Jerusalem, 
and the placing of the statue of 
Jupiter in the holy temple. 
More than half a million Jews 
are said to have perished in the 
hopeless struggle, and the most 
of the survivors were driven 
into exile — the last dispersion 
of the race (135 a.d.). 

The latter years of his reign 
Hadrian passed at Rome. It 
was here that this princely 
builder erected his most splen- 
did structures. Among these 
were a magnificent temple con- 
secrated to the goddesses Venus 

and Roma, and a vast mausoleum (now the castle of St. Angelo) 
erected on the banks of the Tiber and designed as a tomb for himself. 

139. The Antonines (138-180 a.d.). Aurelius Antoninus (surnamed 
Pius), the adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave the Roman 
Empire an administration singularly pure and parental. Throughout 

1 Besides erecting many new structures, he completed the great temple of Olympian 
Zeus begun by the tyrant Pisistratus. 




Fig. 34. Hadrian. (Capitoline 
Museum, Rome) 

All Roman portraits before the time of 
Hadrian it will be noticed have the face 
clean-shaven. Hadrian introduced the prac- 
tice of wearing a beard. This now became 
the mode, as is shown by the portraits 
from this time forward 



130 



FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 



[§139 



his long reign of twenty-three years the Empire was in a state of 
profound peace. The attention of the historian is attracted by no 
striking events, which fact, as many have not failed to observe, illus- 
trates admirably the oft-repeated epigram, " Happy is that people 
whose annals are brief." 

x Antoninus, early in his reign, had united with himself in the gov- 
ernment his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, and upon the death of 
the former (161 a.d.) the latter succeeded quietly to his place and 
work. Aurelius' studious habits won for him the title of philosopher. 
He belonged to the school of the Stoics, and was a most thoughtful 




Fig. 35. Siege of a City. (From Trajan's Column) 



writer. His Meditations breathe the tenderest sentiments of devotion 
and benevolence, and make the nearest approach to the spirit of 
Christianity of all the writings of pagan antiquity. He established an 
institution or home for orphan girls, and, finding the poorer classes 
throughout Italy burdened by their taxes and greatly in arrears in 
paying them, he caused all the tax claims to be heaped in the Forum 
and burned. 

The tastes and sympathies of Aurelius would have led him to 
choose a life passed in retirement and study at the capital ; but 
hostile movements of the Parthians, and especially invasions of the 
barbarians along the Rhenish and Danubian frontiers, called him from 
his books and forced him to spend most of the latter years of his 
reign in the camp. The Parthians, who had violated their treaty with 




A Rock-hewn Facade at Petra, Arabia Petr.ea. (From a photo- 
graph ; see p. 127, n.) 

Most of the numerous rock-cuttings at Petra are tombs, but several of the largest and 
most elaborate, including the one here shown, were probablv temples or public shrines 



§139] THE ANTONINES 131 

Rome, were chastised by the lieutenants of the emperor, and a part 
of Mesopotamia again fell under Roman authority (165 a.d.). 

This war drew after it a series of terrible calamities. The return- 
ing soldiers brought with them the Asiatic plague, which swept off 
vast numbers, especially in Italy, where entire cities and districts 
were depopulated. The Empire never wholly recovered from the 
effects of this pestilence. In the general distress and panic the super- 
stitious people were led to believe that it was the new sect of Chris- 
tians that had called down upon the nation the anger of the gods. 
Aurelius permitted a fearful persecution to be instituted against 
them, during which the celebrated Christian fathers, Justin Martyr 
at Rome and the aged Polycarp at Smyrna, suffered death. 

It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians under the 
pagan emperors sprang from political and social rather than from 
religious motives, and that is why we find the names of the best 
emperors, as well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It 
was believed that the welfare of the state was bound up with the 
careful performance of the rites of the national worship ; and hence, 
while the Roman rulers were usually very tolerant, allowing all forms 
of worship among their subjects, still they required that men of every 
faith should at least recognize the Roman gods and burn incense be- 
fore their statues, and particularly before the statue of the emperor 
(sect. 127). This the Christians steadily refused to do. Their neglect 
of the services of the temple, it was believed, angered the gods and 
endangered the safety of the state, bringing upon it drought, pesti- 
lence, and every disaster. This was a main reason for their persecution 
by the pagan emperors. 

But pestilence and persecution were both forgotten amidst the 
imperative calls for immediate help that now came from the North. 
The barbarians were pushing in the Roman outposts and pouring 
over the frontiers. A tribe known as the Marcomanni even crossed 
the Alps and laid siege to Aquileia, " the gate of Italy." Not since 
the invasion of the Cimbri and the Teutons (sect. 90) had the inhabit- 
ants of any city of Italy seen the barbarians before their gates. To 
the panic of the plague was added this new terror. Aurelius placed 
himself at the head of his legions and hurried beyond the Alps. He 



132 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN (.§140 

checked the inroad of the barbarians, but could not subdue them, 
so weakened was the Empire by the ravages of the pestilence and 
so exhausted was the treasury from the heavy and constant drains 
upon it. At last his weak body gave way beneath the hardships of 
his numerous campaigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona (now 
Vienna) in the nineteenth year of his reign (180 a.d.). 

"The united voice of Senate and people pronounced him a god, 
and divine worship was accorded to his statue. Never was Monarchy 
so justified of her children as in the lives and works of Antoninus 
Pius and Marcus Aurelius. As Merivale, in dwelling upon their 
virtues, very justly remarks, " The blameless career of these illustrious 
princes has furnished the best excuse for Caesarism in all after ages." 

140. The State of the Provinces. The close of the auspicious era 
of the Antonines invites us to cast a glance over the Empire, in order 
that we may note the condition of the population at large. As we 
have already observed, the great revolution which brought in the 
Empire was a revolution which redounded to the interests of the 
provincials (sect. 122). Even under the worst emperors the adminis- 
tration of affairs in the provinces was as a rule prudent, humane, and 
just. It is probably true that, embracing in a single view all the 
countries included in the Roman Empire, the second century of the 
Christian era marks the happiest period in their history. Without 
question there is no basis for a comparison, but only for a contrast, 
between the condition of the countries of the Orient under the earlier 
Roman emperors and the condition of the same lands to-day under 
their arbitrary and rapacious Mohammedan rulers. " Wherever a 
corner of the country," says Mommsen, speaking particularly of 
Asia Minor, " neglected under the desolation of the fifteen hun- 
dred years which separate us from that time, is opened up to in- 
vestigation, there the first and most powerful feeling is that of 
astonishment, one might almost say of shame, at the contrast of 
the wretched and pitiful present with the happiness and splendor 
of the past Roman age." 1 

The cities and towns of the Eastern countries, as well as hundreds 
of similar communities in Spain, in Gaul, in Britain, and in other 

1 The Provinces of the Roman Empire (1887), vol. i, p. 384. 



§140] 



THE STATE OF THE PROVINCES 



133 



lands of the West, were enjoying, under the admirable municipal 
system developed by the Romans, a measure of local self-government 
probably equal to that enjoyed at the present time by the municipali- 
ties of the most advanced of the countries of modern Europe. This 
wise system had preserved or developed the sentiment of local patri- 
otism and civic pride. The cities vied with one another in the erection 
of theaters, amphitheaters, baths, temples, and triumphal arches, and 







Fig. 36. Roman Aqueduct and Bridge, dating from the Early Empire, 
near Nimes, France. (Present condition) 

This is one of the finest and most impressive of the existing monuments of the old 
Roman builders. The lower row of arches carries a modern roadway 

in the construction of aqueducts, bridges, and other works of a utili- 
tarian nature. In these undertakings they were aided not only by 
liberal contributions made by the emperors from the imperial treasury 
but by the generous gifts and bequests of individual citizens. Private 
munificence o£ this character was as remarkable a feature of this age 
as is the liberality of individuals at the present day in the endowment 
of educational and charitable institutions. As the representative of 
this form of ancient liberality, we have Atticus Herodes (about 104- 
180 a.d.), a native of Athens. He was the Andrew Carnegie of his 
time. With a truly royal munificence he built at his own expense at 



134 



FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 



[§141 



Athens a splendid marble stadium large enough to hold the entire 
population of the city. To the city of Troas in Asia Minor he made 
a gift equivalent to over a half million dollars to aid the inhabitants 
in the construction of an aqueduct. 

Scores of majestic ruins scattered throughout the lands once form- 
ing the provinces of the ancient empire of Rome bear impressive 
testimony not only as to the populousness, culture, and enterprise 
of the urban communities of the Roman dominions, but also as to 

the generally wise, fostering, 



and beneficent character of the 
earlier imperial rule. 

141. " The Barrack Em- 
perors." Commodus, son of 
Marcus Aurelius, was a most 
unworthy successor of his illus- 
trious father. His name, like 
that of Nero, is infamous. 
Through his crimes and de- 
baucheries he brought the im- 
perial office to its lowest estate. 
For nearly a century after his 
death (from 192 to 284 a.d.) 
the emperors were elected by 
the army, and hence the rulers 
for this period have been called 
the " Barrack Emperors." The 
character of the period is revealed by the fact that of the twenty- 
five emperors who mounted the throne during this time all except 
four came to death by violence. To internal disorders was added the 
terror of barbarian invasions. On every side savage hordes were 
breaking into the Empire to rob, to murder, and to burn. 

142. The Public Sale of the Empire (193 A.D.). The beginning of 
these troublous times was marked by a shameful proceeding on the 
part of the praetorians. These soldiers, having slain the successor of 
Commodus, gave out notice that they would sell the Empire to the 
highest bidder. It was accordingly set up for sale at their camp and 




Fig. 37. Commodus Represented as 

the Roman Hercules. (From bust 

found in the Horti Lamiani, Rome) 



§143] 



CARACALLA 



135 



struck off to Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who promised twenty- 
five thousand sesterces to each of the twelve thousand soldiers at this 
time composing the guard. So the price of the Empire was three 
hundred million sesterces (about twelve million dollars). 

As soon as the news of the disgraceful transaction reached the 
legions on the frontiers, they rose in indignant revolt. Each army 
proclaimed its favorite commander emperor. The leader of the 
Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of great energy and 
force of character. He knew that there were other competitors for 
the throne and that 
the prize would be 
his who first seized 
it. Instantly he 
set his veterans in 
motion and was 
soon at Rome. 
The praetorians 
were no match for 
the trained legion- 
aries of the fron- 
tiers, and did not 
even attempt to 
defend their em- 
peror, who was 
taken prisoner and 
put to death after a reign of sixty-five days. As a punishment for 
the insult they had offered to the Roman state the unworthy praeto- 
rians were disbanded and banished from the capital, and a new body- 
guard of fifty thousand legionaries was organized to take their place. 

143. Caracalla (211-217 A.D.). Severus, after a prosperous reign, 
died in Britain, leaving the Empire to his two sons, Caracalla and 
Geta. Caracalla murdered his brother and then ordered Papinian, 
the celebrated jurist, to make a public argument in vindication of 
the fratricide. When that great lawyer refused, saying that " it was 
easier to commit such a crime than to justify it," he put him to death. 
Driven by remorse and fear, he fled from the capital and wandered 




Fig. 38. Caracalla. (Museum at Naples) 



136 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN [§144 

about the provinces. Finally, after a reign of six years marked by 
many deeds of incredible wickedness, the monster was slain in Asia. 

Caracalla's sole political act of real importance was the bestowal 
of citizenship upon all the free inhabitants of the Empire ; and this 
he did, not to give them a just privilege, but that he might collect 
from them certain special taxes which only Roman citizens had to 
pay. Before the reign of Caracalla it was only particular classes of 
the provincials, or the inhabitants of some particular city or province, 
that, as a mark of special favor, had from time to time been admitted 
to the rights of citizenship. But by this wholesale act of Caracalla 
the entire free population of the Empire that did not already possess 
the rights of the city was made Roman, at least in name and nominal 
privilege. That vast work of making the whole world Roman, the 
beginnings of which we saw in the dawn of Roman history (sect. 5), 
was now completed. 1 " Rome was the world, and the world was 
Rome." 

144. The Age of the Thirty Tyrants (251-268 a.d.). For about a 
generation after Caracalla the imperial scepter passed rapidly from 
the hands of one emperor to those of another. Then came the 
so-called Age of the Thirty Tyrants. The throne being held by 
weak emperors, there sprang up in every part of the Empire com- 
petitors for it — several rivals frequently appearing in the field at 
the same time. The barbarians pressed upon all the frontiers and 
thrust themselves into all the provinces. 2 The Empire seemed on 
the point of falling to pieces. 3 But a fortunate succession of five good 
emperors — Claudius, Aurelian, Tacitus, Probus, and Carus (268- 
284 a.d.) — restored for a time the ancient boundaries and again 

1 It must not be supposed, however, that the edict of Caracalla did much more than 
register an already accomplished fact. It seems probable that by this time the greater 
part of the freemen of the Empire were already enjoying the Roman franchise. 

2 The Parthians were a menace in the East, the Franks crossed the Rhine and harried 
Gaul ; the Goths, crossing the Danube, raided Mcesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, while 
their fleets from the Euxine ravaged the seaboards of Asia Minor ; Athens, Corinth, 
and other cities of continental Greece were sacked. 

3 It was during this period that the Emperor Valerian (253-260 a.d.), in a battle with 
the Persians before Edessa, in Mesopotamia, was defeated and taken prisoner by Sapor, 
the Persian king. A large rock tablet (Fig. 39), still to be seen near the Persian town of 
Shiraz, commemorates the triumph of Sapor over the unfortunate emperor. 



§ 144] 



THE AGE OF THE THIRTY TYRANTS 



137 



forced together into some sort of union the fragments of the shat- 
tered state. 1 But the Empire bore the marks of the long anarchy. 
Large districts were almost depopulated, and the land was lying 
waste. Industry and commerce had been brought almost to a standstill. 
The most noted of the usurpers of authority in the provinces 
during the period of anarchy was Zenobia, the ruler of the celebrated 
city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. Boldly assuming the title Queen 
of the East, she bade defiance to Rome. Aurelian marched against 



\^- ^j 








Fig. 39. Triumph of Sapor over Valerian. (See p. 136, n. 3) 



her, and defeating her armies in the open field, drove them within 
the walls of Palmyra. After a long siege the city was taken, and, 
in punishment for a second uprising, given to the flames. 2 

The ruins of Palmyra are among the most interesting remains of 
Greek and Roman civilization in the East. For a long time even the 

1 During the reign of Aurelian the Alemanni made an incursion into Italy and threat- 
ened Rome. After their expulsion the emperor, in order to insure the safety of the cap- 
ital in case of future inroads of the barbarians, began the erection of a new wall around 
the city, which had now greatly outgrown the old Servian defenses (sect. 22). This 
wall, which was completed by Probus, was over twelve miles in extent. 

2 Zenobia was carried a captive to Rome. After having been led in golden chains 
in the triumphal procession of Aurelian, the queen was given a beautiful villa in the 
vicinity of Tibur, where, surrounded by her children, she passed the remainder of her 
checkered life. 



138 FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN [§144 

site of the city was lost to the civilized world. The Bedouins, how- 
ever, knew the spot, and told strange stories of a ruined city with 
splendid temples and long colonnades far away in the Syrian desert. 
Their accounts awakened an interest in the wonderful city, and 
towards the close of the seventeenth century some explorers reached 
the spot. The sketches they brought back of the ruins of the long- 
lost city produced almost as much astonishment as did the discoveries 
at a later time of Botta and Layard at Nineveh. 

Selections from the Sources. Tacitus, Annals, i, 74 (the " Informer " at 
Rome), and his Life of Agricola. The Early Christian Persecutions {Transla- 
tions and Reprints, University of Pennsylvania, vol. iv, No. 1) (read Pliny's 
letter to Trajan and Trajan's reply). Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. Munro, 
Source Book, pp. 148-174, 217-234; Davis's Readings (Rome), pp. 186-290. 

References (Modern). Gibbon, chap, ii, " Of the Union and Internal Pros- 
perity of the Roman Empire in the Age of the Antonines." Mommsen, The 
Provinces of the Roman Empire fro in desar to Diocletian. Pelham, Outlines of 
Roman History, pp. 470-548. Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Attre- 
lius (a notable book). Farrar, Seekers after God. Davis, The Infltience of 
Wealth in Imperial Rome. Tucker, Life in the Roman World of Nero and 
St. Paul. Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire {for general ref- 
erence). Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire before A.D. iyo, chap, x, 
"Pliny's Report and Trajan's Rescript"; chap, xi, "The Action of Nero 
towards the Christians " ; chap, xv, " Causes and Extent of Persecutions." 
Boissier, Rome and Pompeii, chap, vi, " Pompeii." Watson, Marctis Aurelius 
Antoninus, chap, vii, " The Attitude of Aurelius towards Christianity." Capes, 
The Age of the Antonines and The Early Empire (in this latter work read 
chap, xii, " The Position of the Emperor," and chap, xix, " The Revival of 
Religious Sentiment"). Hardy, Christianity and the Roman Government (a 
valuable study of the relations of the Christians to the imperial government 
during the first two centuries of the Empire). 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Pompeii and what we have learned of Roman 
life from its remains : Mau, Pompeii : its Life and Art. 2. Letters, books, and 
libraries: Johnston, The Private Life of the Romans, pp. 287-298. 3. An elec- 
tion campaign in Pompeii: Abbott, Society and Politics in Ancient Rome, 
pp. 3-21. 4. The Hadrian Wall in Britain: Bruce, The Roman Wall. 5. The 
spread of Christianity in the first two centuries : Friedlander, Roman Life and 
Manners, vol. iii, chap, ii, pp. 186-214. 6. The Catacombs: Lanciani, Pagan 
and Christian Rome, chap. vii. 7. Zenobia, "Queen of the.East": Wright, 
An Account of Palmyra and Zenobia. 



II. The Absolute Monarchy 

CHAPTER IX 

THE REIGNS OF DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 
THE GREAT 

I. THE REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN (284-305 a. d.) 

145. General Statement. The accession of Diocletian marks an 
important era in the history of the Roman Empire. The two matters 
of chief importance connected with his reign are the changes he 
effected in the government and his persecution of the Christians. 

Diocletian's governmental reforms, though radical, were salutary, 
and infused such fresh vitality into the frame of the dying state as 
to give it a new lease of life for a term of nearly two hundred years. 

146. The Empire becomes an Undisguised Oriental Monarchy. 
Up to the time we have now reached, the really monarchical charac- 
ter of the government was more or less carefully concealed under 
the forms and names of the old Republic. Realizing that republican 

government among the Romans -had passed away forever, and that 
its forms were now absolutely meaningless, Diocletian cast aside all 
the masks with which Augustus had concealed his practically un- 
limited power and which fear or policy had led his successors, with 

greater or less consistency, to retain, and let the government stand 
forth naked in the true character of what it had now become — an 
absolute, Asiatic monarchy. In contrasting the policy of Augustus 
with that of Diocletian, Gibbon truly says : "It was the aim of the 
one to diguise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded 
powers which the emperors possessed over the Roman world." 

The change was marked by Diocletian's assumption of the titles 

)f Asiatic royalty and his adoption of the court ceremonials and 

etiquette of the East. He took the title of lord, in Latin dominns, 

x 39 



140 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE [§147 

whence this period of the absolute monarchy is sometimes called 
The Dominate. He clothed himself in magnificent robes of silk and 
gold. All who approached him, whether of low or of high rank, were 
required to prostrate themselves to the ground, a form of oriental and 
servile adoration which the free races of the West had hitherto, with 
manly disdain, refused to render to their magistrates and rulers. 

The imperial household also now assumed a distinctively oriental 
character. Ostentation and extravagance marked all the appointments 
of the palace. Its apartments were crowded with retinues of servants 
and officers of even* rank, and the person of the emperor was hedged 
around with all the " pomp and majesty of oriental monarchy." 

The incoming of the absolute monarchy meant, of course, the last 
blow to local municipal freedom. The little liberty that still survived 
in the cities or municipalities of the Empire was virtually swept 
away. There was no place under the new government for any 
degree of genuine local independence and self-direction. Italy was 
now also reduced to a level in servitude with the provinces and was 
taxed and ruled like the other parts of the Empire. 

147. Changes in the Administrative System. The centurv of 
anarchv which preceded the accession of Diocletian, and the death 
bv assassination during this period of ten of the twenty-five wearers 
of the imperial purple, 1 had made manifest the need of a system 
which would discourage assassination and provide a regular mode of 
succession to the throne. Diocletian devised a system the aim of 
which was to compass both these ends. First, he chose as a col- 
league a companion ruler, Maximian, who, like himself, bore the title 
of Augustus. Then each of the co-emperors associated with himself 
an assistant, who took the title of Caesar and was considered the son 
and heir of the emperor There were thus two Augusti and two 
Caesars. Milan, in Italy, became the capital and residence of 
Maximian ; while Xicomedia, in Asia Minor, became the seat of the 
court of Diocletian. The Augusti took charge of the countries near 
their respective capitals, while the Caesars — Galerius and Constantius 
— younger and more active, were assigned the government of the 

1 This enumeration does not include the so-called Thirty Tyrants, of whom many 
met death bv violence. 



§ 148] GROWTH OF A CASTE SYSTEM 141 

more distant and turbulent provinces. The vigorous administration 
of the government in every quarter of the Empire was thus secured. 

Diocletian also subdivided many of the provinces. 1 His purpose 
in doing this was to diminish the power of the provincial governors 
and thus make it impossible for them to raise successfully the 
standard of revolt. 

To give still further security to the throne, Diocletian divided the 
civil and military powers, appointing two different sets of persons in 
each of the larger and smaller divisions of the state, the one set to 
represent the civil and the other the military authority. 

Under the new regime the Senate was deprived of all share in 
imperial matters, and became merely a local body concerned only 
with the affairs of the city of Rome. 

A most serious drawback to this system was the heavy expense 
involved in the maintenance of four courts with their endless retinues 
of officers and dependents, and the great number of officials needed 
to man and work the complicated system. It was complained that 
the number of those who received the revenues of the state was 
greater than that of those who contributed to them. The burden 
of taxation grew unendurable. Husbandry in some regions ceased, 
and great numbers were reduced to beggary or driven into brig- 
andage. The curiales or members of the local senates were made 
responsible for the payment of the taxes due the government from 
their respective communities, and hence office-holding became not an 
honor to be coveted but a burden to be evaded. It was this vicious 
system of taxation which more than any other one cause con- 
tributed to the depopulation, impoverishment, and final downfall 
of the Empire. 

148. Growth of a Caste System. To escape from the intolerable 
burdens many of the peasant farmers fled to the desert and became 
monks ; others escaped across the frontiers and sought freedom 
among the barbarians. The well-to-do tried in every way to evade 

1 He increased the number from fifty-seven to ninety-six. His successor Constantine 
raised the number to one hundred sixteen. The provinces were gathered into larger 
divisions, called dioceses, which were apportioned among four great divisions of the 
Empire called prefectures. The prefectures were probably created by Constantine. 



142 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE [§149 

the burden of taxation and of office. To meet the situation the 
government adopted the policy of tying every one liable to taxation 
to his post or profession. The member of a municipal curia or senate 
was bound to his office and could not leave the city without permis- 
sion ; the colonus * or peasant farmer was attached to the land he 
worked and thus made a serf ; the artisan was bound to his trade, 
the merchant to his business. Moreover, all offices, trades, and pro- 
fessions were, in so far as it was possible, made hereditary, children 
being forced to follow the occupation of their father. 2 Every one 
was to remain in the station in which he was born : the son of a 
member of a local senate must take his father's place ; the son of 
a peasant must stay on the farm ; the son of a soldier must be a 
soldier, and so on through all trades and occupations. Classes thus 
tended to become rigid hereditary castes. Personal liberty disappeared. 

149. The Imperial Court. Perhaps we cannot better indicate the 
new relation to the Empire into which the head of the Roman state 
was brought by the innovations of Diocletian and his successor than 
by saying that the Empire now became the private estate of the 
sovereign and was managed just as any great Roman proprietor 
managed his domain. The imperial household and the entire civil 
service of the government were simply such a proprietor's domestic 
establishment drawn on a large scale and given an oriental cast 
through the influence of the courts of Asia. 

This imperial court or establishment was, next after the body of the 
Roman law and the municipal system, the most important historical 
product that the old Roman world transmitted to the later nations 
of Europe. It became the model of the court of Charlemagne and 



1 The coloni (cultivators of the soil) were originally free peasants who tilled for a rent 
paid in money or in kind the imperial domains or the estates of great private landowners. 
By the third century of the Empire many of them, through debt and other causes, had 
sunk into a semiservile condition and had become virtually attached to the soil they 
tilled. This status was now, for the imperial reasons mentioned in the text, made the 
legal status of the class. We have here the beginnings of mediaeval serfdom (see 
sect. 201). 

2 This transformation of the society of the Empire was in process before the reign 
of Diocletian. The trade guilds that supplied necessaries of life had already, in order 
to bring them more completely under the imperial control, been transformed into 
hereditary castes. 



20 



25 



30 



35 



40 



45 



50 



55 



§150] 



PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS 



M-3 




of the courts of the later emperors of the so-called Holy Roman 
Empire ; and in the form that it reappeared here was copied by all 
the sovereigns of modern Europe. 

150. Persecution of the Christians. Towards the end of his reign 
Diocletian inaugurated against the Christians a persecution which 
continued long after his abdication, and which was the severest, as it 
was the last, waged against the Church by the pagan emperors. 
The Christians were cast into dungeons, thrown to the wild beasts in 
the amphitheater, and put to death by every other mode of torture 
that ingenious cruelty could devise. But nothing could shake their 
constancy. They courted the death that se- 
cured them, as they believed, immediate en- 
trance upon a life of unending happiness. 

It was during this and the various other 
persecutions that vexed the Church in the 
second and third centuries that the Christians 
sometimes sought refuge in the Catacombs, 
those vast subterranean galleries and cham- 
bers under the city of Rome. Here they 
buried their dead, and on the walls of the 
chambers sketched rude symbols of their 
hope and faith. It was in the darkness of these subterranean 
abodes that Christian art had its beginnings. 

151. The Abdication of Diocletian. After a reign of twenty years, 
becoming weary of the cares of state, Diocletian abdicated the 
throne and forced or induced his colleague Maximian also to lay 
down his authority on the same day. Galerius and Constantius 
were, by this act, advanced to the purple and made August! ; and 
two new associates were appointed as Caesars. 

Diocletian then retired to his country seat at Salona, on the 
eastern shore of the Adriatic, and there devoted himself to rural 
pursuits. It is related that* when Maximian wrote him urging him 
to endeavor with him to regain the power they had laid aside, he 
replied, "Were you but to come to Salona and see -the cabbages 
which I raise in my garden with my own hands, you would no longer 
talk to me of empire." 



Fig. 40. Christ as 

the Good Shepherd 

(From the Catacombs) 



144 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE [§152 

II. REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (306-337 a. d.) 

152. The Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 a.d.); "In this Sign 
Conquer." Galerius and Constantius, who became Augusti on the 
abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, had reigned together only 
one year when Constantius died at York, in Britain. His soldiers, 
disregarding the rule of succession as determined by the system 
of Diocletian, proclaimed his son Constantine emperor. Six com- 
petitors for the throne arose in different quarters. For eighteen 
years Constantine fought to gain the supremacy. 

One of the most important of the battles that took 
place between the contending rivals for the imperial 
purple was the battle of the Milvian Bridge, about 
two miles from Rome, in which Maxentius, who was 
holding Italy and Africa, was defeated by Constan- 
tine. Constantine's standard on this celebrated battle- 
field was the Christian cross. He had been led to 
adopt this emblem through the appearance, as once 
he prayed to the sun-god, of a cross over the setting 

sun, with the inscription upon it, " In this sign con- 
Labarum ' r • r > t> 

quer. Obedient unto the celestial vision, Constan- 
tine had at once made the cross his banner, 2 and it was beneath this 
new emblem that his soldiers marched to victory at the battle of the 
Milvian Bridge. 

Whatever may have been the circumstances or the motives which 
led Constantine to make the cross his standard, this act of his con- 
stitutes a turning point in the history of the Christian Church. 
Christianity had come into the world as a religion of peace and good 
will. The Master had commanded his disciples to put up the sword. 
For two centuries and more, obedience to this command by a large 
body of his followers had been so implicit that a Quaker, nonmilitary 
spirit had throughout this period characterized the new sect. Some of 

1 In hoc signo vince ; in Greek, kv Tovrcp vIko.. 

2 The new standard was called the Labarwn (from the Celtic Invar, meaning " com- 
mand"). It consisted of a banner inscribed with the Greek letters XP, the first being a 
symbol of the cross, and the two forming a monogram of the word Christ, since the 
letters are the initials of the Greek XPISTOS (Christos). 




§153] CONSTANTINE'S EDICT OF TOLERATION 145 

the early Church Fathers taught that the profession of arms was incom- 
patible with a true Christian life. But after the victory for the Cross 
at the Milvian Bridge a change passed over the Church. It leaned more 
and more upon earthly power, and became militant. This infusion into 
the Church of the military spirit of Rome was one of the most impor- 
tant consequences of the story of the miraculous cross in the sky, and 
of the espousal of the Christian cause by the emperor Constantine. 




Fig. 42. Arch of Constantine at Rome, as it Appears To-day 

Erected by the Roman Senate in commemoration of Constantine's victory over Max- 

entius at the Milvian Bridge 

153. Constantine makes Christianity the Religion of the Court. 

By a decree issued at Milan 313 a.d., the year after the battle at 
the Milvian Bridge, Constantine placed Christianity on an equal 
footing with the other religions of the Empire. The language of 
this famous edict of toleration, the Magna Charta, as it has been 
called, of the Church, was in import as follows : !? We grant to 
Christians and to all others full liberty of following that religion 
mich each may choose." " For the first time in history, the prin- 
ciple of universal toleration was [thus] officially laid down." * 

1 The Cambridge Mediceval History, vol. i, p. 5. An earlier edict of toleration by the 
;mperor Galerius gave the Christians freedom of worship, but did not recognize the 
srinciple of universal toleration. 



146 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE [§154 

But by subsequent edicts Constantine made Christianity in effect 
the state religion and extended to it a patronage which he withheld 
from the old pagan worship. By the year 32.1 a.d. he had granted 
the Christian societies the right to receive gifts and legacies, and he 
himself enriched the Church with donations of money and grants 
of land. This marks the beginning of the great possessions of the 
Church, and with these the entrance into it of a worldly spirit. 
From this moment can be traced the decay of its primitive sim- 
plicity and a decline from its early high moral standard. It is these 
deplorable results of the imperial patronage that Dante laments in 
his well-known lines : 

Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was mother, 
Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower 
Which the first wealthy Father took from thee ! 1 

Another of Constantine's acts touching the new religion is of 
special historical interest and importance. He recognized the Chris- 
tian Sunday as a day of rest, forbidding ordinary work on that day, 
and ordering that Christian soldiers be then permitted to attend the 
services of their Church. This recognition by the civil authority of 
the Christian Sabbath meant much for the slave. Now, for the first 
time in the history of the Indo-European peoples, the slave had one 
day of rest in each week. It was a good augury of the happier 
time coming when all the days should be his own. 

154. The Church Council of Nicasa (325 a.d.). With the view of 
harmonizing the different sects that had sprung up among the Chris- 
tians, and to settle the controversy between the Arians and the 
Athanasians 2 respecting the nature of Christ, — the former denied 
his equality with God the Father, — - Constantine called the first 
ecumenical or general council of the Church at Nicaea, a town of 
Asia Minor, 325 a.d. Arianism was denounced, and a formula of 
Christian faith adopted which is known as the Nicene Creed. 

1 Inferno, xix, 115 -117. 

2 The Arians were the followers of Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria in Egypt ; 
the Athanasians, of Athanasius, archdeacon and later bishop of the same city, and 
the champion of the orthodox or Catholic view of the Trinity. 






§155] CONSTANTINE FOUNDS CONSTANTINOPLE 147 

155. Constantine Founds Constantinople, the New Rome, on the 
Bosphorus (330 a.d.). After the recognition of Christianity, the most 
important act of Consiantine was the selection of Byzantium, on the 
Bosphorus, as the new capital of the Empire. There were many and 
weighty reasons urging Constantine to establish a new capital in 
the East. 

First, there were urgent military reasons for making the change. 
The most dangerous enemies of the Empire now were the barbarians 
behind the Danube and the kings of the recently restored Persian 
monarchy. This condition of things rendered almost necessary the 
establishment in the East of a new and permanent base for military 
operations, and pointed to Byzantium, with its admirable strategic 
position, as the site, above all others, adapted to the needs of the 
imperiled Empire. 

Second, there were also commercial reasons for the transfer of 
the capital. Through the Roman conquest of Greece and Asia, the 
center of the population, wealth, and commerce of the Empire had 
shifted eastward. Now, of all the cities in the East, Byzantium was 
the one most favorably situated to become the commercial metropolis 
of the enlarged state. 

But far outweighing all other reasons for the removal to the East 
of the chief seat of the government were the political motives. 
Constantine, like 'Diocletian, wished to establish a system of gov- 
ernment modeled upon the despotic monarchy of the Orient. Now, 
the traditions, the feelings, the temper of the people of the West 
constituted the very worst foundation conceivable for such a political 
system. Constantine wisely determined to seek in the submissive and 
servile populations of the East, always accustomed to the rendering 
of obsequious homage to their rulers, a firm base for the structure of 
that absolute monarchy proclaimed by his predecessor Diocletian. 

The location for the new capital having been decided upon, the 
artistic and material resources of the whole Graeco-Roman world 
were called into requisition to create upon the spot a city worthy 
its predestined fortunes. The imperial invitation and the attractions 
of the court induced multitudes to crowd into the new capital, so 
that almost in a day the old Byzantium grew into a great city. In 



148 DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE [§156 

honor of the emperor the name was changed to Constantinople, 
the " City of Constantine." The old Rome on the Tiber, emptied 
of its leading inhabitants, soon sank to the obscure position of a 
provincial town. 1 

156. Pagan Restoration under Julian the Apostate (361-363 a.d.). 
A troubled period of nearly a quarter of a century followed the 
death of Constantine the Great, and then the imperial scepter came 
into the hands of Julian, called the Apostate because he abandoned 
Christianity and labored to. restore the pagan worship. In his earlier 
years Julian had been carefully nurtured in the doctrines of the new 
religion ; but later, in the schools of Athens and of other cities where 
he pursued his studies, he came under the influence of pagan teachers, 
and his faith in Christian doctrines was undermined, while at the same 
time he conceived a great admiration for the culture of ancient Hellas. 

Julian, in his efforts to restore paganism, did not resort to the old 
means of persuasion, — "the sword, the fire, the lions," — for the 
reason that, under the softening influences of the very faith Julian 
sought to extirpate, the Roman world had already become imbued 
with a gentleness and humanity that rendered morally impossible 
the renewal of the Neronian and Diocletian persecutions. Julian's 
chief weapon was the pen, for he was a writer and satirist of no 
mean talent. 

It was in vain that the apostate emperor labored to uproot the 
new faith ; for the purity of its teachings, the universal and eternal 
character of its moral precepts, had given it a name to live. Equally 
in vain were his efforts to restore the worship of the old Greek and 
Roman divinities. Polytheism was a form of religious belief which 
the world had now outgrown : great Pan was dead. 

The disabilities under which Julian had placed the Christians were 
removed by his successor Jovian (363-364 a.d.). In the army the 
old pagan standards were replaced by the Labarum, and Christianity 
was again made the religion of the imperial court. 

1 It should be borne in mind that the old Rome had already been in a measure 
deposed from its imperial position by Diocletian, and Milan made the residence of the 
subordinate emperor. But Constantine, by the founding of the new capital in the East, 
made the deposition politically and socially complete and final. 



REFERENCES 149 

Selections from the Sources. Translations and Reprints, University of 
Pennsylvania, vol. iv, No. 1 (read " Edicts of Diocletian " and " Edict of Tol- 
eration by Galerius "). Munro's Source Book, pp. 174-176, 235, 236; Davis's 
Readings (Rome), pp. 291-296. 

References (Modern). Milman, The History of Christianity, vol. ii, bk. ii, 
chap, ix, "The Persecution under Diocletian." Gibbon, chap, xv, "The 
Progress of the Christian Religion and the Sentiments, Numbers, and Con- 
dition of the Primitive Christians " ; chap, xvii (on the founding of Constanti- 
nople and the form of the government). Bury, Later Roman Empire, vol. i, 
bk. i, chap. iv. Pelham, Outlines of Roman History, pp. 551-559- ' Uhlhorn, 
Conflict of Christianity tvith Heathenism, bk. hi, chaps, i-iii. Boissier, Rome 
and Pompeii, chap, iii, " The Catacombs." Firth, Constantine the Great. 
Stanley, Lectures on the LListory of the Eastern Church, lects. ii-v (for the 
history of the Council of Nicaea, 325 B.C.); lect. vi (for events concerning 
the Church during the reign of the emperor Constantine). Seeley, Roman 
imperialism, lect. iii, " The Later Empire." Lanciani, Pagan and Christian 
Rome, chap. i. Newman, The Arians of the Fourth Century, chap iii, "The 
Ecumenical Council of Nicaea." The Camb?'idge Medieval Histo?y, vol. i, 
chaps, i-vii. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Motives underlying the Diocletian persecu- 
tion of the Christians : Mason, The Persecution of Diocletian, chap. iii. 2. The 
Council of Nicasa : Carr, The Church and the Roman Empire, chap. v. 3. The 
founding of Constantinople : Oman, The Byzantine Empire,^. 13-30. 4. Julian 
and the pagan restoration : Carr, The Chtirch and the Roman Empire, chap, vii; 
Gardner, fulian the Philosopher, and the last Struggle of Paganism against 
Christianity. 5. Efforts of Diocletian to fix prices of provisions and wares : 
Abbott, The Common People of Ancient Rome, pp. 145-178. 



CHAPTER X 
THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST 

(376-476 A. D.) 

157. Introductory : the Germans and Christianity. The two most 
vital elements in the Graeco-Roman world of the fifth century were 
the German barbarians and Christianity. They had, centuries before 
this, as we have seen, come into certain relations to the Roman gov- 
ernment and to Roman life ; but during the period lying immediately 
before us they assumed an altogether new historical interest and 
importance. 

The two main matters, then, which will claim our attention during 
the century yet remaining for our study will be (i) the struggle 
between the dying Empire and the young German races of the 
North ; and (2) the final triumph of Christianity, through the aid of 
the temporal power, over expiring paganism. 

158. The Goths Cross the Danube (376 a.d.). The year 376 of the 
Christian era marks an event of the greatest importance in the East. 
The Visigoths (Western Goths) dwelling north of the Lower Danube 
appeared as suppliants in vast multitudes upon its banks. They said 
that a terrible race, whom they were powerless to withstand, had in- 
vaded their territories and spared neither their homes nor their lives. 
They begged permission of the emperor Valens 1 to cross the river 
and settle in Thrace, and promised, should this request be granted, 
ever to remain the grateful and firm allies of the Roman state. Their 
petition was granted on condition that they surrender their arms and 
give up their children as hostages. 

The enemy that had so terrified the Visigoths were the Huns, a 
monstrous race of fierce nomadic horsemen from the vast steppes of 

1 Valens (364-378 a.d.) was emperor of the East. Valentinian (364-375 a.d.), 
emperor in the West, had just died, and been succeeded by Gratian (375-383 a.d.). 

150 




MAP SHOWING 

^BARBARIAN INROADS 

ON THE 

FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

Movements shown down to A.D. 4?? 

ENGLISH MILES 

50 100 200 300 400 500 

*—i i ' i . ' 



10 Longitude 



East 



§159] THE PROHIBITION OF THE PAGAN CULTS 15 1 

Asia. Scarcely had the fugitives been received within the limits of 
the Empire before a large company of their kinsmen, the Ostrogoths 
(Eastern Goths), also driven from their homes by the same terrible 
enemy, crowded to the banks of the Danube and pleaded that they 
also might be allowed to place the river between themselves and their 
dreaded foe. But Valens, becoming alarmed at the presence of so 
many barbarians within his dominions, refused their request, where- 
upon they crossed the river with arms in their hands. 

Once within the Empire they, joined by their Visigothic kinsmen, 
soon began to overrun and ravage the Danubian provinces. Valens 
dispatched swift messengers to Gratian, emperor in the West, ask- 
ing for assistance ; but without awaiting the arrival of the Western 
legions he imprudently risked a battle with the barbarians near 
Adrianople. The Roman army was almost annihilated and Valens 
himself was killed (378 a. d.). 

Gratian was hurrying to the help of his colleague Valens when 
news of his death was brought to him. He at once appointed as his 
associate Theodosius (379-395 a.d.), known afterwards as the Great, 
and intrusted him with the government of the East. Theodosius 
quickly reduced the Goths to submission. Great multitudes of them 
were settled upon the waste lands of Thrace, while more than forty 
thousand of these warlike barbarians, the destined subverters of the 
Empire, were enlisted in the imperial legions. 

159. The Prohibition of the Pagan Cults. Both Gratian and Theo- 
dosius were zealous champions of the orthodox Church, and a large 
portion of the edicts issued during their joint reign had for aim the 
uprooting of heresy or the suppression of the pagan worship. (Speak- 
ing generally, from the accession of Constantine down to the time 
which we have now reached, the pagans had been allowed full lib- 
erty of worship.) At first the pagans were merely placed under certain 
disabilities, but finally it was made a crime for any one to practice 
any pagan cult, or even to enter a temple. The sacred fire which 
had burned so long on the national hearth in the temple of Vesta 
(sect. 17) was extinguished. In the year 392 a.d. even the private 
worship of the Lares and Penates was prohibited. The struggle 
between Christianity and heathenism was now virtually ended — and 



152 THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE [§160 

the "Galilean" had Conquered. Pagan rites, however, especially in 
the country districts, were practiced secretly long after this. 

160. Emperor Theodosius the Great and Bishop Ambrose of Milan. 

A memorable incident, illustrative of the influence of the new religion 
that was now fast taking the place of paganism, marks the reign of 
Theodosius the Great. In a sedition caused by the arrest and im- 
prisonment of a favorite charioteer, the people of Thessalonica, in 
Macedonia, had murdered the general and several officers of the 
imperial garrison in that place. When intelligence of the event 
reached Theodosius, who was at Milan, his hasty temper broke 
through all restraint, and, moved by a spirit of savage vengeance, 
he ordered an indiscriminate slaughter of the inhabitants of Thes- 
salonica. The command was obeyed and at least seven thousand 
persons perished. 

Shortly after the massacre, the emperor, as he was entering the 
door of the cathedral at Milan where he was wont to worship, was 
met at the threshold by the pious Bishop Ambrose, who, in the name 
of the God of justice and mercy, forbade him to enter the sacred 
place until he had done public penance for his awful crime. The 
commander of all the Roman legions was constrained to obey the 
unarmed pastor. In penitential garb and attitude Theodosius made 
public confession of his sin and humbly underwent the penance 
imposed by the Church. 

This passage of history is noteworthy as marking a stage in the 
moral progress of humanity. It made manifest how with Christianity 
a new moral force had entered the world, how a sort of new and 
universal tribunician authority (see sect. 31) had arisen in society to 
interpose, in the name of justice and humanity, between the weak 
and defenseless and their self-willed and arbitrary rulers. 

161. Final Administrative Division of the Empire (395 a.d.). 
Upon the death of Theodosius, in 395 a.d., the imperial government, 
as he had prearranged, was divided between his two sons, Arcadius 
and Honorius. Arcadius, - who was only eighteen years of age, 
received the government of the East, and. Honorius, still a mere 
child of elev en, the government of the West. This division was in 
no way different from those that had been repeatedly made since the 



§162] THE EMPIRE IN THE EAST 153 

time of Diocletian, and was not to affect the unity of the Empire. 
But so different was the trend of events in the two halves of the old 
Empire from this time on that the historians of Rome have generally 
allowed this division of the imperial rule to constitute a dividing line 
in the history of the Empire, and have begun here to trace separately 
the story of each part. 

162. The Empire in the East. 1 The story of the fortunes of the 
Empire in the East need not detain us long here. The line of East- 
ern emperors lasted over a thousand years ■ — until the capture of 
Constantinople by the Turks, 1453 a.d. It will thus be seen that 
the greater part of its history belongs to the mediaeval period. Up to 
the time of the dissolution of the Empire in the West the emperors 
of the East were engaged almost incessantly in suppressing uprisings 
of their Gothic allies or mercenaries, or in repelling invasions of 
different barbarian tribes. 

163. First Invasion of Italy by Alaric (402-403 a.d.). Only a few 
years had elapsed after the death of the great Theodosius before the 
barbarians were trooping in vast hordes through all parts of the 
Empire. First, from Thrace and Mcesia came the Visigoths, led by 
the great Alaric. They poured through the Pass of Thermopylae and 
devastated almost the entire peninsula of Greece ; but being driven 
from that country by Stilicho, the renowned Vandal general of 
Honorius, they crossed the Julian Alps and spread terror through- 
out Italy. Stilicho followed the barbarians cautiously, and, attacking 
them at a favorable moment, inflicted upon them a memorable defeat 
in northern Italy. The captured camp was found filled with the 
spoils of Thebes, Corinth, and Sparta. After an attempt to seize 
Rome by a. sudden dash, which was thwarted by the vigilant Stilicho, 
Alaric withdrew from Italy through the defiles of the Alps. 

164. Last Triumph at Rome (404 a.d.). A terrible danger had 
been averted. All Italy burst forth in expressions of gratitude and 
joy. The days of the Cimbri and Teutons were recalled, and the 
name of Stilicho was coupled with that of Marius (sect. 90). 
A magnificent triumph at Rome celebrated the victory. It was the 
last triumph that Rome ever saw. Three hundred times — such is 

1 For the proper use of this phrase " Empire in the East," see below, p. 225, n. 1. 



154 THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE [§165 

asserted to be the number — the Imperial City had witnessed the 
triumphal procession of her victorious generals, celebrating conquests 
in all quarters of the world. 1 

165. Last Gladiatorial Combat of the Amphitheater. The same 
year that marks the last military triumph at Rome. signalizes also the 
last gladiatorial combat in the Roman amphitheater. It is to Chris- 
tianity that the credit of the suppression of these inhuman exhibi- 
tions is entirely, or almost entirely, due. The pagan philosophers 
usually regarded them with indifference, often with favor. Thus 
Pliny commends a friend for giving a gladiatorial entertainment at 
the funeral of his wife. They were defended on the ground that 
they fostered a martial spirit among the people and mured the 
soldiers to the sights of the battlefield. Hence gladiatorial games 
were sometimes actually exhibited to the legions before they set out 
on their campaigns. 

But the Christian Fathers denounced the combats as immoral, and 
labored in every possible way to create a public opinion against 
them. At length, in 325 a.d., the first imperial edict against them 
was issued by Constantine. From this time forward the exhibitions 
were under something of a ban, until their final abolition was 
brought about by an incident of the games that closed the triumph 
of Honorius. In the midst of the exhibition a Christian monk 
named Telemachus, leaping into the arena, rushed between the com- 
batantsj but was instantly killed by a shower of missiles thrown by 
the people, who were angered by his interruption of their sport. The 
people, however, soon repented of their act ; and Honorius himself, 
who was present, was moved by the scene. Christianity had awak- 
ened the conscience and touched the heart of Rome. The martyr- 
dom of the monk led to an imperial edict " which abolished forever 
the human sacrifices of the amphitheater." 

166. The Ransom of Rome (409 a.d.). Shortly after the victories 
of Stilicho over the German barbarians, 1 he came under the suspicion 
of the weak and jealous Honorius, and was executed. Thus fell the 

1 Soon after the Gothic invasion of the year 403, Italy was again invaded by a mixed 
German host led by a chieftain named Radagaisus. At Florence the barbarians were 
surrounded by the Roman army under Stilicho and forced to surrender. 



§167] SACK OF ROME BY ALARIC 155 

great general whose sword and counsel had twice saved Rome from 
the barbarians, and who might again have averted similar dangers 
already at hand ; for just now the thirty thousand Gothic mercenaries 
in the Roman service were incited to revolt by the massacre, at the 
hands of Italian mobs, of their wives and children, who were held 
as hostages in the different cities of Italy. The Goths beyond the 
Alps joined their kinsmen to avenge the atrocious deed. Alaric again 
crossed the mountains and led his hosts to the very gates of Rome. 
Not since the time of the dread Hannibal (sect. 66) — more than 
six hundred years before this — had Rome been insulted by the 
presence of a foreign foe beneath her walls. 

Famine soon forced the Romans to sue for terms of surrender. 
The ambassadors of the Senate, when they came before Alaric, 
began, in lofty language, to warn him not to render the Romans 
desperate' by hard or dishonorable terms : their fury when driven to 
despair, they represented, was terrible, and their number enormous. 
:t The thicker the grass, the easier to mow it," was Alaric's derisive 
reply. The barbarian chieftain at length named the ransom that he 
would accept and spare the city. Small as it was, comparatively, the 
Romans were able to raise it only by the most extraordinary meas- 
ures. The images of the gods were first stripped of their ornaments 
of gold and precious stones, and finally the statues themselves were 
melted down. 

167. Sack of Rome by Alaric (410 a.d.). Upon retiring from 
Rome, Alaric established his camp in Etruria. The chieftain now 
demanded for his followers lands of Honorius, who, with his court, 
was safe behind the marshes of Ravenna ; but the emperor treated 
all the proposals of the barbarian with foolish insolence. 

Rome paid the penalty. Alaric turned upon the city, resolved 
upon its plunder. The barbarians broke into the capital by night, 
" and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of 
the Gothic trumpet." Just eight hundred years had passed since 
its sack by the Gauls (sect. 40). Now it is given over for the 
second time as a spoil to barbarians. Alaric commanded his sol- 
diers to spare the lives of the people, and to leave untouched the 
treasures of the Christian churches ; but the wealth of the citizens 



156 THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE [§168 

he permitted them to make their own. It was a rich booty with 
which they loaded their wagons, for within the palace of the Caesars 
and the homes of the wealthy were gathered the riches of a plun- 
dered world. 

168. Effects of the Disaster upon Paganism. The overwhelming 
disaster that had befallen the Imperial City produced a profound 
impression upon both pagans and Christians throughout the Roman 
Empire. The pagans maintained that these unutterable calami- 
ties had overtaken the Roman people because of their abandon- 
ment of the worship of the gods of their forefathers, under 
whose protection and favor Rome had become the mistress of 
the world. 

The Christians, on the other hand, saw in the fall of the city the 
fulfillment of the prophecies of their Scriptures against the Babylon 
of the Apocalypse. It was this interpretation of the appalling calam- 
ity that gained credit amidst the panic and despair of the times. 
" Henceforth," says the historian Merivale, " the power of paganism 
was entirely broken, and the indications which occasionally meet us 
of its continued existence are rare and trifling. Christianity stepped 
into its deserted inheritance." 

169. The Death of Alaric (410 a.d.). After withdrawing his war- 
riors from Rome, Alaric led them southward. As they moved slowly 
on, they piled still higher the wagons of their long trains with the 
rich spoils of the cities and villas of Campania and other districts of 
southern Italy. In the villas of the Roman nobles the barbarians 
spread rare banquets from the stores of their well-filled cellars, and 
drank from jeweled cups the famed Falernian wine. 

Alaric's designs of conquest in Africa were frustrated by his death, 
which occurred 410 a.d. Tradition tells how, with religious care, his 
followers secured the body of their hero against molestation. The 
little river Busentinus, in northern Bruttium, was turned from its 
course with great labor, and in the bed of the stream was con- 
structed a tomb, in which was placed the body of the king, with 
his jewels and trophies. The river was then restored to its old 
channel, and, that the exact spot might never be known, the pris- 
oners who had been forced to do the work were all put to death. 



§170] THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE EMPIRE 157 

170. The Disintegration of the Empire and the Beginnings of the 
Barbarian Kingdoms (410-451 A.D.). 1 We must now turn our eyes 
from Rome and Italy in order to watch the movement of events in 
the Western provinces of the Empire. During the forty years fol- 
lowing the sack of Rome by Alaric, the German tribes seized the 
greater part of these provinces and established in them what are 
known as the barbarian kingdoms. , 

The Goths who had pillaged Rome and Italy, after the death of 
their great chieftain Alaric, under the lead of his successors, recrossed 
the Alps, and establishing their camps in the south of Gaul and the 
north of Spain, set up finally in those regions what is known as the 
Kingdom of the Visigoths or West Goths (sect. 203). 

While the Goths were making these migrations and settlements, 
a kindred but less civilized tribe, the Vandals, moving from their 
seat in Pannonia, traversed Gaul, crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, 
and there occupied for a time a large tract of country, which in its 
present name of Andalusia preserves the memory of its barbarian 
settlers. Then they crossed the straits of Gibraltar, overthrew the 
Roman authority in all North Africa, and made Carthage the seat 
of a dreaded corsair empire (sect. 204). 

About this same time the Burgundians established themselves in 
southeastern Gaul. A portion of the region occupied by these settlers 
still retains from them the name of Burgundy. 

Meanwhile the Franks, who about a century before the sack of 
Rome by Alaric had made their first settlement in Roman territory 
west of the Rhine, were increasing in numbers and in authority, and 
were laying the foundation of what after the fall of Rome was to 
become known as the Kingdom of the Franks — the beginning of the 
French nation of to-day (sect. 205). 

But the most important of all the settlements of the barbarians 
was being made in the remote province of Britain. In his efforts 
to defend Italy against her barbarian invaders, Stilicho had with- 
drawn the last legion from Britain, and had thus left unguarded the 
Hadrian Wall in the north (sect. 138) and the long coast line facing 

1 We choose these dates for the reason that they set off the interval between two 
great events — the sack of Rome by Alaric and the battle of Chalons (sect. 171). 



i 5 8 



THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE 



[§171 



the continent. The Picts of Caledonia, taking advantage of the 
withdrawal of the guardians of the province, swarmed over the 
unsentineled rampart and pillaged the fields and towns of the south. 
The half-Romanized and effeminate provincials — no match for their 
hardy kinsmen who had never bowed their necks to the yoke of 
Rome — were driven to despair by the ravages of their relentless 
enemies, and, in their helplessness, invited to their aid the Angles 
and Saxons from the shores of the North Sea. These people came 




Fig. 43. Germans Crossing the Rhine. (After a drawing by Alphonse 

de Neuville) 

in their rude boats, drove back the invaders, and, being pleased with 
the soil and climate of the island, took possession of the country for 
themselves and became the ancestors of the English people. 

171. Invasion of the Huns; Battle of Chalons (451 A. d.). The 
barbarians who were thus overrunning and parceling out the inherit- 
ance of the dying Empire were now in turn pressed upon and ter- 
rified by a foe more hideous and dreadful in their eyes than they 
themselves were in the eyes of the Roman provincials. These were 
the Mongol Huns, from the region northwest of China, of whom we 
have already caught a glimpse as they drove the panic-stricken Goths 



§172] ATTILA THREATENS ROME 159 

across the Danube (sect. 158). At this time their leader was Attila, 
whom the affrighted inhabitants of Europe called the " Scourge of 
God." It was Attila's boast that the grass never grew again where 
once the hoof of his horse had trod. 

Attila defeated the armies of the Eastern emperor and exacted 
tribute from the court of Constantinople. Finally he turned west- 
ward, and, at the head of a host numbering, it is asserted, seven 
hundred thousand warriors, crossed the Rhine into Gaul, purposing 
first to ravage that province and then to traverse Italy with fire and 
sword, in order to destroy the last vestige of the Roman power. The 
Romans and their German conquerors united to make common cause 
against the common enemy. The Visigoths rallied about their king, 
Theodoric ; the Italians, the Franks, and the Burgundians flocked to 
the standard of the Roman general Aetius. 1 Attila drew up his mighty 
hosts upon the plain of Chalons, in the north of Gaul, and there 
awaited the onset of the Romans and their allies. The conflict was 
long and terrible, but at last fortune turned against the barbarians, 
whose losses were enormous. Attila succeeded in escaping from the 
field and retreated with his shattered hosts across the Rhine. 

This great victory is placed among the significant events of history; 
for it decided that the Indo-European folk, and not the Mongolian 
Huns, should inherit the dominions of the expiring Roman Empire 
and control the destinies of Europe. 

172. Attila Threatens Rome; his Death (453 ? a. d.). The year 
after his defeat at Chalons, Attila crossed the Alps and burned or 
plundered all the important cities of northern Italy. The Veneti fled 
for safety to the morasses at the head of the Adriatic (452 a.d.). 
Upon the islets where they built their rude dwellings there grew up 
in time the city of Venice, " the eldest daughter of the Roman 
Empire," the " Carthage of the Middle Ages." 

The barbarians threatened Rome ; but Leo the Great, bishop of 
the capital, Went with an embassy to the camp of Attila and pleaded 
for the city. He recalled to the mind of Attila how death had over- 
taken the impious Alaric soon after he had given the Imperial City 

1 Aetius has been called " the last of the Romans." For twenty years previous to this 
time he had been the upholder of the imperial authority in Gaul. 



160 THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE [§173 

as a spoil to his warriors, and warned him not to call down upon 
himself the like judgment of Heaven. Attila was induced to spare 
the city and to lead his warriors back beyond the Alps. Shortly after 
he had crossed the Danube he died suddenly in his camp, and like 
Alaric was buried secretly. 

173. Sack of Rome by the Vandals (455 a.d.). Rome had been 
saved a visitation from the spoiler of the North, but a new destruction 
was about to burst upon it by way of the sea from the South. Africa 
sent out another enemy whose greed for plunder proved more fatal 
to Rome than the eternal hate of Hannibal. The kings of the Vandal 
empire in North Africa had acquired as perfect a supremacy in the 
Western Mediterranean as Carthage ever enjoyed in the days of her 
commercial pride. Vandal corsairs swept the seas and harassed all 
the shore-lands. In the year 455 a Vandal fleet led by the dread 
Geiseric sailed up the Tiber. 

Panic seized the people, for the name Vandal was pronounced with 
terror throughout the world. Again the great Leo, who had once 
before saved his flock from the fury of Attila, went forth to intercede 
in the name of Christ for the Imperial City. Geiseric granted to the 
pious bishop the lives of the citizens, but said that the movable prop- 
erty of the capital belonged to his warriors. For fourteen days and 
nights the city was given over to the barbarians. The ships of the 
Vandals, which almost hid with their number the waters of the Tiber, 
were piled, as had been the wagons of the Goths before them, with 
the rich and weighty spoils of the capital. Palaces were stripped of 
their furniture, and the walls of the temples denuded of the trophies 
of a hundred Roman victories. 1 From the Capitoline sanctuary were 
borne off the golden candlestick and other sacred things that Titus 
had stolen from the temple at Jerusalem 2 (sect. 133). 

The greed of the barbarians was sated at last, and they were ready 
to withdraw. The Vandal fleet sailed for Carthage, bearing, besides 

1 It would seem that, in some instances at least, after the closing of the temples to 
the pagan worship, many of the sacred things, such as war trophies, were left undis- 
turbed in the edifices where they had been placed during pagan times. 

2 " The golden candlestick reached the African capital, was recovered a century later, 
and lodged in Constantinople by Justinian, and by him replaced, from superstitious 
motives, in Jerusalem. From that time its history is lost." — Merivale 



§174] LAST OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPERORS 161 

the plunder of the city, more than thirty thousand of the inhabitants 
as slaves. Carthage, through her own barbarian conquerors, was at 
last avenged upon her hated rival. The mournful presentiment of 
Scipio had fallen true (sect. 81). The cruel fate of Carthage might 
have been read again in the pillaged city that the Vandals left 
behind them. 

174. Last Act in the Break-up of the Empire in the West (476 a.d.). 
Only the shadow of the Empire in the West now remained. The 
provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Africa were in the hands of the 
Franks, the Goths, the Vandals, and various other intruding tribes. 
Italy, as well as Rome herself, had become again and again the spoil 
of the barbarians. The story of the twenty years following ( the sack 
of the capital by Geiseric affords only a repetition of the events we 
have been narrating. During these years several puppet emperors 
were set up by army leaders. The last was a child of only six years. 
By what has been called a freak of fortune this boy-sovereign bore 
the name of Romulus Augustus, thus uniting in the name of the last 
Roman emperor of the West the names of the founder of Rome 
and the establisher of the Empire. He became known as Augustulus, 
the " little Augustus." He reigned only one year, when Odoacer, 
the leader of a small German tribe, dethroned the child-emperor. 

The Roman Senate now sent to Constantinople an embassy to 
represent to the Eastern emperor Zeno that the West was willing 
to give up its claims to an emperor of its own, 1 and to request 
that the German chief, with the title of patrician, might rule 
Italy as his viceroy. With this rank and title Odoacer assumed 
the government of the peninsula. Thus Italy, while remaining 
nominally a part of the Empire, became in reality an independent 
barbarian kingdom, like those which had already been set up 
in the other countries of the West. The transaction marks not 
only the end of the line of Western Roman emperors, but also 
the virtual extinction of the Roman imperial rule in the western 
provinces of the old Empire — the culmination of a century-long 
process of dissolution. 

1 There was an exiled emperor of the West, Julius Nepos, living at Salona. He was 
ignored by Odoacer. 



162 THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE [§175 

175. Summary of the Causes of the Failure of the Empire. It has 

been said that the Empire perished for lack of men. It is, in truth, 
a well-attested fact that, particularly in the later period of the Empire, 
there was a steady decline in the population. This resulted from many 
causes, some of which had been at work from the time of the later 
Republic. Prominent among these agencies were slavery (later, serf- 
dom), an oppressive tax system, terrible pestilences, like that which 
visited the Empire in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (sect. 139), and, 
above all, the destruction of the flower of the Italian race in the 
wars, civil and foreign, which make up so large a part of the his- 
tory of Rome. 

But a more potent cause of the weakness of the Empire than this 
decline in the number of men was the general decline in public spirit 
and in the intellectual and moral vigor of the Roman people. The 
generally assigned causes of this moral decadence are many and 
cannot be dwelt upon here. We must be content with simply em- 
phasizing its deep significance for the political fortunes of the Empire. 
It sapped the very foundations of the state and made certain the 
final catastrophe. 

Another cause of the decay of the Empire was the decay of that 
free farmer class which was the strength of early Rome. This down- 
ward movement of the rural population began in the republican 
period. It was caused largely by the monopolization of the land by 
a few persons. All the efforts of the statesmen of the later Republic, 
all the devices of the emperors, to remedy this evil and to re-create 
in Italy and in the provinces a body of free peasant proprietors, had 
effected very little. In the third century after Christ, as in the second 
century before, the great masses who turned the soil had not a clod 
they could call their own. They had become serfs, that is, laborers 
living in a semiservile condition On the estates of the great landowners 
or on the imperial domains. There they had become merged with 
the earlier slave class and had naturally sunk to the intellectual and 
moral level of that class. The weakening effect upon the Empire of 
this virtual enslavement, and the resulting degradation of the once 
free peasantry of Italy and of the Western provinces cannot be 
overrated. 



§175] THE FAILURE OF THE EMPIRE 163 

Contributing in like manner to the failure of the Empire was the 
ruin and disappearance of the middle class of society. How the 
growing needs of the imperial government led to the laying of ever- 
heavier burdens upon this order, and how withering were the effects 
of this policy, has already been explained (sect. 147). " It was to the 
conversion of the curiales into an hereditary caste, loaded with incal- 
culable liabilities, that the decay of the Western Empire was to a 
large extent due." 1 v 

Another contributing cause of the fatal weakness of the imperial 
government was the Germanization of the Empire. As early as the 
second century a. d. the policy of permitting barbarians to settle in 
the empty provinces was adopted by the emperors. Multitudes of 
barbarian prisoners were settled as coloni or serfs on the waste land 
along the frontiers. By the fifth century a considerable part of the 
inhabitants of the Empire were Germans. Now these barbarian set- 
tlers brought in an anti-Roman spirit, and especially a spirit of per- 
sonal freedom, which was directly opposed to the absolutism of the 
Roman imperial government. When their kinsmen came as invaders 
and conquerors they welcomed them as deliverers. 

At the same time that the civil population of the Empire was being 
thus Germanized, the army was in like manner being transformed. 
The growing dislike among the Italians of the military service brought 
it about that the army was recruited more and more from among the 
Germans beyond the ; frontiers. The ranks were filled with barbarians 
or semibarbarians, and leaders among them like Stilicho and Odoacer 
gained as commanders the place once held by the Fabii and the 
Scipios. This transformation of the army could have no other out- 
come than what we have seen to be the issue of it all — the entrance 
into the legions of an un-Roman spirit and the final seizure of the 
reins of government by disaffected or ambitious leaders of the 
mutinous soldiers. 

Still another reason of the breakdown of the Empire was the lack 
of a rule of succession to the throne. The' imperial crown never be- 
came hereditary or regularly elective. Generally the successful aspir- 
ant for the imperial dignity reached the throne through violent or 

1 Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius (1904), p. 213. 



1 64 THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE [§176 

irregular means. The throne never became buttressed by what con- 
stitutes the strength of a monarchical government — the sentiment of 
loyalty to a legitimate dynasty. 

Again, lack of unity in the Empire contributed largely to its weak- 
ness and failure. Rome had reached out too far and embraced too 
much. She could not absorb and assimilate the diverse races, creeds, 
and civilizations included in her extended frontiers. She had, it is 
true, Romanized the West, and a large part of it remains Roman 
(Latin) to this day, but she could not Romanize the East. The result, 
as we have seen, was the division of the Empire into an Eastern and 
a Western section. This lack of unity appears again when we view 
the local units of the Empire — the cities. The Empire was made 
up of hundreds of cities, but- there were no vital bonds uniting them. 
There was city pride and spirit, but nothing, or almost nothing, cor- 
responding to what is to-day called national patriotism. It was this 
lack of public spirit, this lack of spiritual bonds binding the cities into 
a unified state, that the historian Guizot maintains was the chief 
cause of the dissolution of the Empire. With the first blows of the 
barbarians it fell to pieces. 

Lastly, in the growing strength of the German tribes outside the 
Empire must be sought the immediate cause of the destruction of 
the Roman authority in the West. Since the time of Julius Caesar 
these tribes had formed powerful confederacies. By the Romans, 
too, they had been taught the art of war. Thus Rome put into 
the hands of the barbarians the weapons they were to use against 
her. The part that these northern folk played in the tragedy of the 
downfall of the imperial government in the West we have just now 
witnessed. But in contemplating the tragedy we need to bear in mind 
the adage that a thing cannot be crushed from without until ready 
to perish from decay within. The Germans, as a great historian 
(Eduard Meyer) has said, did not destroy Roman civilization ; it was 
self-destroyed. 

176. Import of the Downfall of the Roman Government in the 
West. ' The emancipation of Italy and the Western provinces from 
direct imperial control, which was signalized by Odoacer's succes- 
sion," writes an eminent historian of Rome, " has rightly been 



§176] IMPORT OF THE REVOLUTION 165 

regarded as marking the opening of a new epoch." 1 We reach here 
a turning point in the history of the Western world. 

The revolution, one of the most momentous in the annals of the 
European peoples, brought it about that the lamp of culture, which 
since the second century of the Empire had burned with ever lessen- 
ing light, was almost extinguished. It ushered in the so-called 
" Dark Ages." During this period the new race was slowly attaining 
the level of culture that the Greeks and Romans had reached. 

But the revolution meant much besides disaster and loss. It meant 
the enrichment of civilization through the incoming of a new and 
splendidly endowed race. Within the Empire during several centuries 
three of the most vital elements of civilization, the Greek, the Roman, 
and the Christian, had been gradually blending. Now was added a 
fourth factor, the Germanic. It is this element which has had much 
to do in making modern civilization richer and more progressive than 
any preceding civilization. 

The downfall of the Roman imperial government in the West was, 
further, an event of immense significance in the political world, for 
the reason that it rendered possible the growth in western Europe 
of several nations or states in place of the single Empire. 

Another consequence of the fall of the Roman power in the West 
was the development of the Papacy. In the absence of an emperor 
in the West the popes rapidly gained influence and power, and soon 
built up an ecclesiastical empire that in some respects took the place 
of the old Roman Empire and carried on its civilizing work. 

Selections from the Sources. Tacitus, Germania (the most valuable origi- 
nal account that we possess of the life and manners of our German ancestors 
about the first century of our era). Jordanes, Origin and Deeds of the Goths 
(Mierow's trans.), xxxiv-xli (on Attila and the battle of Chalons). St. Augus- 
tine, The City of God. Davis's Readings (Rome), pp. 297-325. 

References (Modern). Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, vols, i, ii (on the 
Visigothic, the Hunnish, and the Vandal invasion). Pelham, Ozitlznes of 
Roman History, pp. 557-572. MlLMAN, The History of Christianity, vol. iii. 
Dill, Roman Society in the last Century of the Western Empire (a book of un- 
surpassed value). Curteis, History of the Roman Empire (from 395 to 800 A.D.), 
chaps, vi-ix. Gibbon, chap, ix, " The State of Germany till the Invasion of 

1 Pelham, Outlines of Roman History (1895), p. 57 2 > 



1 66 THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE 

the Barbarians in the Time of the Emperor Decius." Church, The Beginnings 
of the Middle Ages ; read the introduction and chap. i. Kingsley, The Roman 
and the Teuton, lects. i-iii. Creasy, Decisive Battles of the World, chap, vi, 
" The Battle of Chalons, 451 a.d." Emerton, An Introduction to the Study of 
the Middle Ages, chaps, ii, iii. (These chapters cover admirably the following 
subjects: "The Two Races," "The Breaking of the Frontier by the Visi- 
goths," and " The Invasion of the Huns.") The Cambridge Medieval History, 
vol. i, chaps, viii-xiv, xix, xx. For the causes of the failure of the Empire in 
the West, see the following : Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, vol. ii, 
pp. 532-613; Seeley, Roman Imperialism, lect. ii, pp. 37-64; Bury, A 
History of the later Roman Empire, vol. i, chap, iii (Bury makes slavery, 
oppressive taxation, the importation of barbarians, and Christianity the four 
chief causes of the weakness and failure of the Empire). 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Alaric the Goth: Bradley, The Goths, chap, x, 
pp. 84-98. 2. St. Jerome: Carr, The Church and the Roman Empire, chap. xiv. 
3. St. Augustine and his City of God ; Carr, The Church and the Roman Empire, 
chap, xv ; Cutts, Saint Augustine, chap, xx, pp. 184-194; Dill, Roman Society 
in the last Century of the Western Empire, pp. 59—73- 4- Causes of the down- 
fall of the Empire in the West : Hodgkin, Seeley, and Bury, as cited above in 
" References " ; Davis, The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome, chap. viii. 



CHAPTER XI 



! 



ARCHITECTURE, LITERATURE, LAW, AND SOCIAL LIFE 
AMONG THE ROMANS 

I. ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING 

177. Rome's Contribution to Architecture. The architecture of the 
Romans was, in the main, an imitation of Greek models. But the 
Romans were not mere servile imitators. They not only modified 
the architectural forms they borrowed but they gave their structures 
a distinct character by the 
prominent use of the arch, 
which the Greek and orien- 
tal builders seldom em- 
ployed, though they were 
acquainted with its prin- 
ciple. By means of it 
the Roman builders gave 
a new artistic effect to 
edifice's, vaulted wide pas- 
sages and chambers, car- 
ried stupendous aqueducts 
icross the deepest valleys, 
and spanned the broadest 
streams with bridges that 
have resisted all the as- 
saults of time and flood 




Fig. 44. The Pantheon, at Rome 
(Present condition) 



for eighteen centuries and more down to the present day. These 
applications of the principle of the arch were the great contribution 
which the Roman architects made to the science and art of building. 
178. Sacred Edifices. The temples of the Romans were in general 
so like those of the Greeks that we need not here take space to enter 
into a particular description of them. Mention, however, should be 

167 



■■f*ft 




oo 

CO 



o 

•fe 

< 
o 

w 
H 









«4| 



1 68 



§179] CIRCUSES, THEATERS, AMPHITHEATERS 169 

* 

made of their circular vaulted temples, as this was a style of building 
almost exclusively Italian. The best representative of this style of 
sacred edifices is the Pantheon, at Rome, which has come down to 
our own times in a state of wonderful preservation. This structure is 
about one hundred and forty feet in diameter. The immense con- 
crete dome which vaults the building is one of the boldest pieces of 
masonry executed by the master builders of the world. 

179. Circuses, Theaters, and Amphitheaters. The circuses of the 
Romans were what we should call race courses. There were several 
at Rome, the most celebrated being the Circus Maximus, which was 






mmw 







*-^j|§il 



T«fc*= 



KM. 



< W 



Fig. 46. The Circus Maximus. (A restoration) 



first laid out in the time of the Tarquins and afterwards enlarged as 
the population of the capital increased, until it was capable, it is said, 
of holding two or three hundred thousand spectators. 

The Romans borrowed the plan of their theaters from the Greeks; 
their amphitheaters, however, were original with them. The Flavian 
amphitheater, generally designated as the Colosseum, to which refer- 
ence has already been made, speaks to us perhaps more impressively 
of the spirit of a past civilization than any other memorial of the 
ancient world. 1 The ruins of this immense structure stand to-day as 
" the embodiment of the power and splendor of the Roman Empire." 

Many of the most important cities of Italy and of the provinces 
were provided with amphitheaters similar in all essential respects to 
the Colosseum at the capital only much inferior in size, save the 
one at Capua, which was nearly as large as the Flavian structure. 

1 See sect. 134, and Fig. 47, p. 170. 



170 



ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING 



[§180 



180. Military Roads. Foremost among the works of utility exe- 
cuted by the Romans, and the most expressive of the practical genius 
of the people, were their military roads. Radiating from the capital, 
these roads lengthened with the growing Empire, until all the coun- 
tries about the Mediterranean and beyond the Alps were united 
to Rome and to one another by a perfect network of highways of 
such excellent construction that even now, in their ruined state, 
they excite the admiration and wonder of modern engineers. 1 




Fig. 47. The Colosseum. (From a photograph) 
" Monument of the glory of the Empire, and of its shame." — Dill 



These military roads, with characteristic Roman energy and dis- 
regard of obstacles, were carried forward, as nearly as possible, in 
straight lines and on a level, mountains being pierced with tunnels, 
and valleys crossed by means of massive viaducts. Near Naples 
may be seen one of these old tunnels still in' use. It is nearly half 

1 Besides the Via Appia (sect. 45), which connected Rome with Campania and south- 
eastern Italy, there were three other specially important roads issuing from Rome and 
affording communication between the capital and northern Italy. These were the Via 
Flaminia, which ran to Ariminum on the Adriatic ; the Via Atirelia, which ran up the 
coast to Pisa ; and the Via Cassia, which traversed the midland districts. The plains of 
the Po were fairly netted with roads. One of the most important of these was the Via 
SEmilia, which continued the Via Flaminia to Placentia on the Po. 



§181] 



AQUEDUCTS 



171 



a mile in length, and is called the Grotto of Posilipo (see Fig. 9). 
It leads the ancient Appian Way through a promontory that at this 
point presents an obstacle to its course. 

The usual width of the roadway was from four to five yards. 
The bed was formed of cement and broken rock, upon which was 
sometimes laid, as in the case of the Via Apfiia, a solid pavement 
of stone. In the great Forum at Rome 
was a gilded post, from which distances 
on all the roads of the peninsula were 
measured. 

181. Aqueducts. The aqueducts of an- 
cient Rome were among the most impor- 
tant of the utilitarian works of the Romans. 
The water system of the capital was com- 
menced about 313 B.C. by Appius Claudius, 
who secured the building of an aqueduct 
which led water into the city from the 
Sabine hills. During the Republic four 
aqueducts in all were completed ; under ..^ 
the emperors the number was increased to 
fourteen. 1 The longest of these was about 
fifty-five miles in length. The aqueducts Fig. 48. A Roman Mile- 
usually ran beneath the surface, but when ST0NE - ( From a photograph) 
a depression was to be crossed they were This milestone, which stands at 

,. r , , , . , . the modern Chesterholm near 

lifted on arches, which sometimes were 




the line of the Hadrian Wall, 
is the only one in Britain stand- 
ing where it was placed by the 
old Roman engineers 



over one hundred feet high. 2 These lofty 
arches running in long, broken lines over 
the plains beyond the walls of Rome are 
the most striking feature of the Campagna at the present time. 
182. Thermae or Baths. Among the ancient Romans bathing be- 
came in time a luxurious art. Under the Republic, bathing-houses 
were erected in considerable numbers. But it was during the imperial 

1 Several of these are still in use. 

2 The Romans carried their aqueducts across depressions and valleys on high arches 
of masonry, not because they were ignorant of the principle that water seeks a level, 
but for the reason that they could not make large pipes strong enough to resist the 
great pressure to which they would be subjected. 



1/2 



ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING 



[§182 



period that those magnificent structures to which the name thermce 
properly attaches, were erected. These edifices were very different 
from the bathing-houses of the republican era, being among the 
most elaborate and expensive of the imperial works. They con- 
tained chambers for cold, hot, and swimming baths; dressing-rooms 
and gymnasia ; museums and libraries ; covered colonnades for 
lounging and conversation ; beautiful grounds filled with statues ; 
and every other adjunct that could add to the sense of luxury and 




Fig. 49. The Claudian Aqueduct. (From a photograph) 



relaxation. 1 Being intended to exhibit the liberality of their imperial 
builders, they were thrown open to the public free of charge. 

It was not the inhabitants of the capital alone that had converted 
bathing into a luxury and an art. There was no town of any con- 
siderable size anywhere within the limits of the Empire that was 
not provided with its thermae ; and wherever springs possessing 
medicinal properties broke from the ground, there arose magnificent 
baths, and such spots became the favorite watering-places of the 
Romans. Thus Baden-Baden was a noted and luxurious resort of 
the wealthy Romans centuries before it became the great summer 
haunt of the modern Germans. 

1 Lanciani calls these imperial thermae " gigantic clubhouses, whither the voluptuary 
and the elegant youth repaired for pastime and enjoyment." 



§183] 



VILLAS 



173 



183. Villas. Every wealthy Roman possessed his villa, and many 
kept up several in different parts of Italy. These country residences, 
while retaining all the conveniences of the city palace, such as baths, 
museums, and libraries, added to these such adjuncts as were denied 
a place by the restricted room of the capital — extensive gardens, 
aviaries, fish ponds, 
vineyards, olive or- 
chards, shaded walks, 
and well-kept drives. 

The most noted 
of Roman villas was 
that of Hadrian, at 
Tibur (now Tivoli). 
It was intended to 
be a miniature rep- 
resentation of both 
the upper and the 
lower world. In one 
part of the grounds 
were reproduced the 
Vale of Tempe and 
other celebrated bits 
of scenery, which 
doubtless Hadrian in 
his extended travels 
had seen and ad- 
mired. Subterranean 
labyrinths enabled 
the visitor to descend 
into Hades and to behold the fabled scenes of that dolorous region. 

184. Sepulchral Monuments. The Romans in the earliest times 
seem usually to have disposed of their dead by burial ; but towards 
the close of the republican period cremation or burning became 
common. The incoming of Christianity with its doctrine of the 
resurrection of the body caused burying to become again the prev- 
alent mode. 




Fig. 50. The Medicinal Spring of Umeri 
(From Schreiber's Atlas of Classical Antiquities) 

A visitor's souvenir of the spring. At the top the nymph 
of the spring pours water from an urn ; in the center a man 
fills a large jar ; at the bottom, another man fills a barrel on 
a water-wagon. At the right an invalid receives a glass of 
water from an attendant. The other two persons (one ob- 
viously poor and the other well-to-do) at the altars make 
offerings or pour libations 



l 7A 



LITERATURE AND LAW 



[§185 



The favorite burying-place among the Romans was along the 
highways ; " for the dead were thought of as ever turning towards 
this life." The Appian Way, for a distance of several miles from 
the gates of the capital, was lined with sepulchral monuments. 




Fig. 51. Mausoleum of Hadrian, at Rome. (From a photograph) 

Many of these, in a ruined state, still line the ancient highway 
(see Fig. 8). These structures were as varied in design as are the 
monuments in modern cemeteries. 1 



II. LITERATURE AND LAW 

185. Poets of the Republic. Latin literature was almost wholly 
imitative or borrowed, being a reproduction of Greek models ; still 
it performed a most important service for civilization by being the 
medium for the dissemination throughout the world of the rich 
literary treasures of Greece. 2 

1 For examples of Roman triumphal columns and arches, see Figs, n, 32, 42. 

2 There will here be in place a word respecting ancient publishers and books. There 
were in Rome several publishing-houses, which, in their day, enjoyed a wide reputation 
and conducted an extended business. " Indeed, the antique book trade," says Guhl, 



§186] POETS OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE 175 

It was the dramatic productions of the Greeks which were first 
copied and studied by the Romans. For nearly two centuries, from 
240 to 78 B.C., dramatic literature was almost the only form of 
composition cultivated at Rome. During this epoch appeared all 
the great dramatists ever produced by the Latin-speaking race. The 
most noteworthy of these were Plautus (about 254-184 B.C.) and 
Terence (about 185-160 B.C.), both writers of comedy. Their works 
were drawn from or based upon the pieces of the Greek New Com- 
edy. 1 Some of the stock characters of the comic stage of to-day are 
types portrayed in their pieces, for as Plautus and Terence borrowed 
from the Greek stage so have modern writers of comedy drawn 
freely from Roman predecessors. 

During the later republican period there appeared two poets of 
distinguished merit, Lucretius and Catullus. Lucretius (95-51 B.C.) 
studied at Athens, where he became deeply imbued with the philos- 
ophy of Epicurus. In his great poem On the Nature of Things, 
the practical aim of which was to free men from fear of the gods 
and of death, he tells how the generations of life were evolved 
from the teeming earth ; declares that the gods do not trouble them- 
selves about earthly affairs, but that storms, lightning, volcanoes, and 
pestilences are produced by natural causes and not by the anger of 
the celestials ; and finally reaches the conclusion that death ends all 
for man, and so need not be feared. 

Catullus (born about 87 B.C.) was a lyric poet. He has been called 
the Roman Burns, as well on account of the waywardness of his life 
as from the sweetness of his song. 

186. Poets of the Augustan Age. Three poets — Vergil (70- 
19 B.C.), Horace (65-8 B.C.), and Ovid (43 B.C. -18 a.d.) — have cast 
an unfading luster over the period covered by the reign of Augustus. 

"was carried on on a scale hardly surpassed by modern times. . . . The place of the 
press in our literature was taken by the slaves." Through practice they gained surprising 
facility as copyists, and books were multiplied with great rapidity. And, as to the books 
themselves, we must bear in mind that a book in the ancient sense was simply a roll of 
manuscript or parchment, and contained nothing like the amount of matter held by an 
ordinary modern volume. Thus Caesar's Gallic Wars, which makes a single volume of 
moderate size with us, made eight Roman books. Most of the houses of the wealthy 
Romans contained libraries. The collection of Sammonicus Serenus, tutor of Gordian, 
numbered 62,000 books, l See Eastern Nations and Greece (2nd Rev. Ed.), p. 310, n. 2, 



176 LITERATURE AND LAW [§187 

So distinguished have these writers rendered the age in which they 
lived, that any period in a people's literature signalized by exceptional 
literary taste and refinement is called, in allusion to this Roman era, 
an Augustan Age. 

The three great works of Vergil are the Eclogues, the Georgia, 
and the sEneid. The Eclogues are a series of pastorals, which are 
very close imitations of the poems of Theocritus, the Sicilian. 
In the Georgics Vergil extols and dignifies the husbandman and his 
labor. The work was written at the suggestion of Maecenas, who 
hoped by means of the poet's verse to allure his countrymen back 
to that love for the art of husbandry which animated the fathers 
of the early Roman state. Throughout the work Vergil follows 
very closely the Works and Days of the Greek poet Hesiod. With- 
out the Georgics we should never have had the Seasons of Thomson; 
for this work of the English poet is in a large measure a direct 
translation of the verses of Vergil. 

The ALneid holds a place among the world's great epics. In 'this, 
his chief work, Vergil was a close student of the Iliad and the 
Odyssey, and to them he is indebted for very many of his finest 
metaphors, similes, and descriptive passages. A chief aim of the 
poem was to glorify Rome by connecting its origin and history 
with the story of Troy and the purposes of the gods, and to exalt 
Augustus as the man who had ended desolating war and brought in 
an era of peace. 

Horace's Odes, Satires, and Epistles have all helped win for him 
his widespread fame ; but the first best exhibit his genius and his 
subtle grace of expression. 

Ovid's most celebrated work is his Metamorphoses, in which he 
describes between two and three hundred metamorphoses, or trans- 
formations, suffered by various persons, gods, heroes, and goddesses, 
as related in the innumerable fables of the Greek and Roman 
mythologies. 

187. Satire and Satirists. Satire thrives best in the reeking soil 
and tainted atmosphere of an age of selfishness, immorality, and 
vice. Such an age was that which followed the Augustan at Rome. 
Hence arose a succession of writers whose mastery of sharp and 



§188] ORATORY AMONG THE ROMANS 177 

stinging satire has caused their productions to become the models 
of all subsequent attempts in the same species of literature. 

Two names stand out in special prominence — Persius (34-62 a. d.), 
" the Roman Puritan," and Juvenal (about 40-120 a.d.). The works 
of these writers possess a special historical value and interest since 
they cast a strong side light upon life at Rome during the early 
portion of the imperial period. 1 

The indignant protest of Persius and Juvenal against the vices 
and follies of their time is almost the last utterance of the Latin 
Muse. After the death of Juvenal the Roman world produced not 
a single poet of preeminent merit. 

188. Oratory among the Romans. " Public oratory," as has been 
truly said, " is the child of political freedom, and cannot exist without 
it." We see this illustrated in the history of republican Athens. 
Equally well is the same truth exemplified by the records of the 
Roman state. All the great orators of Rome arose under the 
Republic. Among these Hortensius and Cicero stand preeminent. 

Hortensius (114-50 B.C.) was a famous lawyer whose name adorns 
the legal profession at the capital both as the learned jurist and as 
the eloquent advocate. His forensic talent won for him a lucrative 
law practice, through which he gathered an immense fortune. 

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), the contemporary and friend 
of Hortensius, is easily the first of Roman orators — "the most 
eloquent of all the sons of Romulus." As a youth he enjoyed every 
advantage that wealth and parental ambition could confer or suggest. 
Like many others of the Roman patrician youth of his time, he was 
sent to Greece to finish his education in the schools of Athens. 
Returning to Italy, he soon assumed a position of commanding 
influence at the Roman capital (sect. 106). Even more highly prized 
than his orations and essays are his letters, for Cicero was a most 
delightful letter-writer. His letters to his friend Atticus — nearly 
three hundred have been preserved — are among the most charming 
specimens of that species of composition. 

1 Martial, an epigrammatic poet (born about 40 a.d.), also was a satirist of this period, 
but he rebuked only some of the minor vices of society. Many of his own writings, judged 
by the moral sense of to-day, are grossly immoral. 



178 LITERATURE AND LAW [§189 

189. Latin Historians. Ancient Rome produced four writers of 
history whose works have won for them lasting fame — Caesar, 
Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. 1 Suetonius may also be mentioned in this 
place, although his writings were rather biographical than historical. 

Caesar's productions are his Commentaries on the Gallic War and 
his Me?noirs of the Civil War. His Commentaries will always be 
cited along with the Anabasis of Xenophon as a model of the 
narrative style of writing. 

Sallust (86-34 B.C.) was the contemporary and friend of Caesar. 
As praetor of one of the African provinces, he amassed an immense 
fortune, by harsh, if not unjust, exactions, and erected at Rome a 
palatial residence with beautiful gardens, which became one of the 
favorite resorts of the literary characters of the capital. The two 
works upon which his fame rests are the Conspiracy of Catiline and 
the fugnrthine War. 

Livy (59 B.C. -1 7 a. d.) was one of the brightest ornaments of the 
Augustan Age. Herodotus among the ancient, and Macaulay among 
the modern, writers of historical narrative are the names with which 
his is most often compared. His greatest work is his Annals, sl history 
of Rome from the earliest times to the year 9 b.c. Unfortunately, 
only thirty-five of the one hundred and forty-two books of this admira- 
ble production have been preserved. Many have been the laments 
over " the lost books of Livy." Livy loved a story equally well with 
Herodotus. Like the Greek historian, he was overcredulous, and 
relates with charming ingenuousness, usually without the least ques- 
tioning of their credibility, all the legends and myths that were extant 
in his day respecting the early affairs of Rome. Modern criticism 
has shown that the first portion of his history is entirely unreliable 
as a chronicle of actual events. However, it is a most entertaining 
account of what the Romans themselves thought and believed in 
regard to the origin of their race, the founding of their city, and 
the deeds and virtues of their forefathers. 



1 A fuller list of Roman historical authors would have to admit the name of Fabius 
Pictor, who was the first historian of the Latin-speaking race ; that of Cato the Censor, 
of whose Antiquities we possess the merest fragments ; and that of Cornelius Nepos, 
who wrote in the first century b.c. 



190] 



SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND PHILOSOPHY 



179 




' ■>' CI '1 



The most highly prized work of Tacitus is his Germania, a treatise 
on the manners and customs of the Germans. In this work Tacitus 
sets in strong contrast the virtues of the untutored Germans and the 
vices of the cultured Romans. 

190. Science, Ethics, and Philosophy. Under this head may be 
grouped the names of Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, 
Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus. 

Seneca (about 1-65 a.d.), moralist and philosopher of the Stoic 
school, has already come to our notice as the tutor of Nero (sect. 131). 
He was a disbeliever in the popular religion of his countrymen, and 
entertained conceptions of God and his 
moral government not very different from 
those of Socrates. 

Pliny the Elder (23-79 A - D -) is almost 
the only Roman who won renown as a natu- 
ralist (see sect. 134). The only work of his 
that has been spared to us is his Natural 
History, a sort of Roman encyclopedia. 

In connection with the name of Pliny 
the Elder must be mentioned that of his 
nephew, Pliny the Younger (sect. 137). His 
epistles, like the letters of Cicero, are among 
the most valuable of the Roman prose pro- 
ductions that have come down to us. 

Marcus Aurelius the emperor and Epictetus the slave hold the first 
place among the ethical teachers of Rome. The former wrote his 
Meditatio?is (sect. 139) ; but the latter, like Socrates, committed noth- 
ing to writing, so that we know of the character of his teachings 
only through one of his pupils, Arrian by name. Epictetus (born about 
50 a.d.) was for many years a slave at the capital, but, securing in 
some way his freedom, he became a teacher of philosophy. His name 
is inseparably linked with that of Marcus Aurelius as a teacher of the 
purest system of morals found outside of Christianity. Epictetus and 
Aurelius were the last eminent representatives of the Greek philoso- 
pher Zeno. Christianity, giving a larger place to the affections than 
did Stoicism, was already fast winning the hearts of men. 



v. 



Fig. 52. Seneca. (From 

the double bust of Seneca 

and Socrates in the Berlin 

Museum) 



180 LITERATURE AND LAW [§191 

19 1. Writers of the Early Latin Church. The Christian authors 
of the first three centuries, like the writers of the New Testament, 
employed the Greek, that being the language of learning and culture. 
As the Latin tongue, however, gradually came into more general use 
throughout the West, the Christian authors naturally began to use it 
in the composition of their works. Hence almost all the writings of 
the Fathers of the Church produced in the western half of the Empire 
during the later imperial period were composed in Latin. From 
among the many names that adorn the Church literature of this 
period we shall select only two for special mention — St. Jerome 
and St. Augustine. 

Jerome (342 ?-42o a. d.) was a native of Pannonia. For many 
years he led a monastic life at Bethlehem. He is especially held in 
memory through his translation of the Scriptures into Latin. This 
version is known as the Vulgate, and is the one which, with slight 
changes, is still used in the Roman Catholic Church. " It was for 
Europe of the Middle Ages," asserts Mackail, " more than Homer 
was to Greece." 

Aurelius Augustine (354-430 a.d.) was born near Carthage, in 
Africa. He was the most eminent writer of the Christian Church' 
during the later Roman period. His City of God, a truly wonderful 
work, possesses a special interest for the historian. The book was 
written just when Rome was becoming the spoil of the barbarians. 
It was designed to answer the charge of the pagans that Christianity, 
turning the people away from the worship of the ancient gods, was 
the cause of the calamities that were befalling the Roman state. 

192. Roman Law and Law Literature. Although the Latin writers 
in all the departments of literary effort which we have so far reviewed 
did much valuable work, yet the Roman intellect in all these prov- 
inces was under Greek guidance. Its work was largely imitative. 
But in another department it was different. We mean, of course, the 
field of legal and political science. Here the Romans ceased to be 
pupils and became teachers. Nations, like men, have their mission. 
Rome's mission was to give laws to the world. 

Our knowledge of the law system of the Romans begins with 
the legislation of the Twelve Tables, about 450 b.c. (sect. $$). 



§192] ROMAN LAW AND LAW LITERATURE 181 

Throughout all the republican period the laws were growing less 
harsh and cruel, and were becoming more liberal and scientific. 

From ioo B.C. to 250 a.d. lived and wrote the most famous of 
the Roman jurists and law writers, who created the most remarkable 
law literature ever produced by any people. The great unvarying 
principles that underlie and regulate all social and political relations 
were by them examined, illustrated, and expounded. Gaius, Ulpian, 
Paulus, Papinian, and Pomponius are among the most renowned of 
the writers who, during the period just indicated, enriched bv their 
writings and opinions this branch of Latin literature. 

In the year 527 a.d. Justinian became emperor of the Roman 
Empire in the East. He almost immediately appointed a commission, 
headed by the great lawyer Tribonian, to collect and arrange in a 
systematic manner the immense mass of Roman laws and the writ- 
ings of the jurists. The undertaking was like that of the decemvirs 
in connection with the Twelve Tables, only far greater. The result 
of the work of the commission was what is known as the Corpus 
Juris Civilis, or " Body of the Civil Law." This consisted of three 
parts — the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes} The Code was 
a revised and compressed collection of all the laws, instructions to 
judicial officers, and opinions on legal subjects promulgated by the 
different emperors since the time of Hadrian ; the Pandects (" all- 
containing") were a digest or abridgment of the writings, opinions, and 
decisions of the most eminent of the old Roman jurists and lawyers. 
The Institutes were a condensed edition of the Pandects, and were 
intended to form an elementary textbook for the use of students in 
the great law schools of the Empire. 

The body of the Roman law thus preserved and transmitted was 
the great contribution of the Latin intellect to civilization. 2 It has 

1 A later work called the Novels comprised the laws of Justinian promulgated sub- 
sequent to the completion of the Code. 

2 Notwithstanding that the Romans had much political experience and developed 
a wonderfully complex unwritten constitution, still, aside from their municipal and 
administrative systems, they made no permanent contribution to the art of govern- 
ment or to the science of constitutional law. It was left for the English people, 
virtually unaided by Roman precedents, to work out the constitution of the modern 
free state. The primary assemblies of the Romans could afford no instructive pre- 
cedents in the department of legislation. The practical working of the device of the 



1 82 SOCIAL LIFE [§193 

exerted a profound influence upon the law systems of almost all the 
European peoples. Thus does the once little Palatine city of the 
Tiber still rule the world. The religion of Judea, the arts of Greece, 
and the laws of Rome are three very real and potent elements 
in modern civilization. 

III. SOCIAL LIFE 

193. Education. Under the Republic there were no public schools 
in Rome ; education was a private affair. Under the early Empire a 
mixed system prevailed, there being both public and private schools. 
Later, education came more completely under the supervision of the 
state. The salaries of the teachers and lecturers were usually paid 
by the municipalities, but sometimes from the imperial chest. 

Never was the profession of the teacher held in such esteem as 
among the later Romans. Teachers were made exempt from many 
public burdens and duties and were even invested with inviolability, 
like heralds and tribunes. 

The education of the Roman boy differed from that of the Greek 
youth in being more practical. The laws of the Twelve Tables were 
committed to memory; and rhetoric and oratory were given special 
attention, as a mastery of the art of public speaking was an almost 
indispensable acquirement for the Roman citizen who aspired to take 
a prominent part in the affairs of state. 

After their conquest of Magna Graecia and of Greece the Romans 
were brought into closer relations with Greek culture than had 
hitherto existed. The Roman youth were taught the language of 
Athens, often to the neglect, it appears, of their native tongue ; for 
we hear Cato the Censor complaining that the boys of his time 
spoke Greek before they could use their own language. Young men 
belonging to families of means not unusually went to Greece, just as 
the graduates of our schools go to Europe, to finish their education. 

dual executive of the Republic was not calculated to commend it to later statesmen. 
The single admirable feature in the composition of the later republican Senate of Rome, 
namely, the giving of seats in that body to ex-magistrates, has not been imitated by 
modern constitution makers, though James Bryce, in his commentary on the American 
commonwealth, suggests that they might have done so to advantage in the making up 
of the upper chambers of their legislatures. 



§194] SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMAN 183 

Many of the most prominent statesmen of Rome, as, for instance, 
Cicero and Julius Caesar, received the advantages of this higher 
training in the schools of Greece. 

194. Social Position of Woman. Until after her marriage the 
daughter of the family was kept in almost oriental seclusion. 
Marriage gave her a certain freedom. She might now be present 
at the races of the circus and the shows of the theater and amphi- 
theater — a privilege rarely accorded to her before marriage. 

In the early, virtuous period of the Roman state the wife and 
mother held a dignified and assured position in the household, and 
divorces were unusual, there being no instance of one, it is said, until 
the year 231 B.C. ; but in later times her position became less honored 
and divorce grew to be very common. The husband had the right to 
divorce his wife for the slightest cause or for no cause at all. In this 
disregard of the sanctity of the family relation may doubtless be found 
one cause of the degeneracy and failure of the Roman stock. 

195. Public Amusements ; the Theater and the Circus. The enter- 
tainments of the theater, the games of the circus, and the combats of 
the amphitheater were the three principal public amusements of the 
Romans. These entertainments, in general, increased in popularity 
as liberty declined, the great festive gatherings at the various places 
of amusement taking the place of the political assemblies of the 
Republic. The public exhibitions under the Empire were, in a certain 
sense, the compensation which the emperors offered the people for 
their surrender of the right of participation in public affairs ; and the 
people were content to accept the exchange. 

Tragedy was never held in high esteem at Rome ; the people saw 
too much real tragedy in the exhibitions of the amphitheater to care 
much for the make-believe tragedies of the stage. The entertain- 
ments of the theaters usually took the form of comedies, farces, and 
pantomimes. The last were particularly popular, both because the 
v?itc size of the theaters made it quite impossible for the actor to 
make his voice heard throughout the structure and for the reason 
that the language of signs was the only language that could be 
readily understood by an audience made up of so many different 
nationalities as composed a Roman assemblage. Almost from the 



1 84 SOCIAL LIFE [§196 

beginning the Roman stage was gross and immoral. It was one 
of the main agencies to which must be attributed the undermining 
of the originally sound moral life of Roman society. 

More important and more popular than the entertainments of 
the theater were the various games of the circus, especially the 
chariot races. 

196. Animal Baitings. But far surpassing in their terrible fasci- 
nation all other public amusements were the animal baitings and the 
gladiatorial combats of the amphitheater. 

The beasts required for the baitings were secured in different parts 
of the world and transported to Rome and the other cities of the 
Empire at enormous expense. The wildernesses of northern Europe 
furnished bears and wolves ; Scotland sent fierce dogs ; Africa con- 
tributed lions, crocodiles, and leopards ; Asia added elephants and 
tigers. These creatures were pitted against one another in every 
conceivable way. Often a promiscuous multitude would be turned 
loose in the arena at once. But even the terrific scene that then 
ensued became at last too tame to stir the blood of the Roman 
populace. Hence a new species of entertainment was demanded by 
the spectators of the amphitheater. This was the gladiatorial combat. 

197. The Gladiatorial Combats. Gladiatorial shows seem to have 
had their origin in Etruria, whence they were brought to Rome. 
It was a custom among the early Etruscans to slay prisoners upon 
the warrior's grave, it being thought that the manes of the dead 
delighted in the blood of such victims. In later times the prisoners 
were allowed to fight and kill one another, this being deemed more 
humane than slaying them in cold blood. 

The first gladiatorial spectacle at Rome was presented by two 
sons at the funeral of their father in the year 264 B.C. This exhibi- 
tion was arranged in one of the forums, as there were at that time 
no amphitheaters in existence. From this time the public taste for 
this kind of entertainment grew rapidly, and by the beginning of |he 
imperial period had become an infatuation. It was no longer the 
manes of the dead, but the spirits of the living that the spectacles 
were intended to appease. At first the combatants were slaves, cap- 
tives, or condemned criminals ; but at last knights, senators, and 



§197] 



THE GLADIATORIAL COMBATS 



185 



even women descended voluntarily into the arena. Training-schools 
were established at Rome, Capua, Ravenna, and other cities. Free 
citizens often sold themselves to the keepers of these seminaries ; 
and to them nocked desperate men of all classes and ruined spend- 
thrifts of the noblest patrician houses. Slaves and criminals were 
encouraged to become proficient in the art by the promise of freedom 
if they survived the combats beyond a certain number of years. 

Sometimes the gladiators fought in pairs ; again, great companies 
engaged at once in the deadly fray. They fought in chariots, on 
horseback, on foot — in 
all the ways in which 
soldiers were accustomed 
to fight in actual battle. 
The contestants were 
armed with lances, swords, 
daggers, tridents — with 
every manner of weapon. 
Some were provided with 
nets and lassos with which 
they entangled their ad- 
versaries before slaying 
them. 

The life of a wounded 
gladiator was, in ordinary 
cases, in the hands of the spectators. If in response to his appeal for 
mercy, which was made by outstretching the forefinger, the specta- 
tors waved their handkerchiefs or reached out their hands with 
thumbs extended, that indicated that his prayer had been heard ; but 
if they extended their hands with thumbs turned in, that was the 
signal for the victor to give him the death stroke. Sometimes the 
dying were aroused and forced to resume the fight by being burned 
with a hot iron. The dead bodies were dragged from the arena with 
hooks, like the carcasses of animals, and the pools of blood soaked 
up with dry sand. 

These shows increased to such an extent that they entirely over- 
shadowed the entertainments of the circus and the theater. Ambitious 




Fig. s: 



Gladiators. (From an 
ancient mosaic) 



1 86 



SOCIAL LIFE 



[§ 198 



officials and commanders arranged such spectacles in order to curry- 
favor with the masses ; magistrates were expected to give them in 
connection with the public festivals ; the heads of aspiring families 
provided them " in order to acquire social position " ; wealthy citizens 
prepared them as an indispensable feature of a fashionable banquet ; 
the children — catching the spirit of their elders — imitated them in 
their plays. 

The rivalries between ambitious leaders during the later years of 
the Republic tended greatly to increase the number of gladiatorial 
shows, as liberality in arranging these spectacles was a sure passport 




Fig. 54. Semicircular Dining-couch. (From a Pompeian wall painting) 



to popular favor. It was reserved for the emperors, however, to ex- 
hibit them on a truly imperial scale. Titus, upon the dedication of 
the Flavian amphitheater, provided games, mostly gladiatorial com- 
bats, that lasted one hundred days. Trajan celebrated his victories 
with shows that lasted still longer, in the progress of which ten 
thousand gladiators fought upon the arena, and more than ten 
thousand wild beasts were slain. 1 

198. Luxury. By luxury, as we shall use the word, we mean 
extravagant and self-indulgent living. This vice seems to have been 
almost unknown in early Rome. The primitive Romans were men 
of frugal habits, who, like Manius Curius Dentatus (sect. 77), found 
contentment in poverty and disdained riches. 

1 For the suppression of the gladiatorial games, see sect. 165. 



§199] STATE DISTRIBUTION OF CORN 187 

A great change, however, as we have seen, passed over Roman 
society after the conquest of the East and the development of the 
corrupt provincial system of the later Republic. The colossal fortunes 
quickly and dishonestly amassed by the ruling class marked the in- 
coming at Rome of such a reign of luxury as perhaps no other 
capital of the world ever witnessed. This luxury was at its height in 
the last century of the Republic and the first of the Empire. Never 
perhaps has great wealth been more grossly misused than during this 
period at Rome. A characteristically Roman vice of this age was 
gluttony, or gross table-indulgence. 

199. State Distribution of Corn. The free distribution of corn at 
Rome has been characterized as the leading fact of Roman life. 
It will be recalled that this pernicious practice had its beginnings in 
the legislation of Gaius Gracchus (sect. 88). Just before the estab- 
lishment of the Empire over three hundred thousand Roman citizens 
were recipients of this state bounty. In the time of the Antonines 
the number is asserted to have been even larger. The corn for this 
enormous distribution was derived, in large part, from a grain tribute 
exacted of the African and other corn-producing provinces. In the 
third century, to the largesses of corn were added doles of oil, wine, 
and pork. 

The evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can 
hardly be overstated. Idleness and all its accompanying vices were 
fostered to such a degree that we probably shall not be wrong 
in enumerating the practice as one of the chief causes of the 
demoralization of society at Rome under the emperors. 

200. Slavery. The number of slaves in the Roman state under 
the later Republic and the earlier Empire was very great, some 
estimates making it equal to the number of freemen. Some large 
proprietors owned as many as twenty thousand. The love of osten- 

Itation led to the multiplication of offices in the households of the 
wealthy and the employment of a special slave for every different 
kind of work. Thus there was the slave called the sa?idaIio, whose 
sole duty it was to care for his master's sandals ; and another called 
the noinendator, whose exclusive business it was to accompany his 



1 88 SOCIAL LIFE [§201 

such persons as he ought to recognize. The price of slaves varied 
from a few dollars to ten or twenty thousand dollars — these last 
figures being, of course, exceptional. Greek slaves were the most 
valuable, as their lively intelligence rendered them serviceable in posi- 
tions calling for special talent. Slaves skilled in medicine or other 
professions were often let out for hire, or were set free on condition 
that they should give their former master a part of their earnings. 

The slave class was chiefly recruited, as in Greece, by war and by 
the practice of kidnaping. Some of the outlying provinces in Asia 
and Africa were almost depopulated by the slave hunters. Delinquent 
taxpayers were often sold as slaves, and frequently poor persons sold 
themselves into servitude. 

The feeling entertained towards this unfortunate class in the later 
republican period is illustrated by Varro's classification of slaves as 
" vocal agricultural implements," and again by Cato the Censor's 
recommendation to masters to sell their old and decrepit slaves in 
order to save the expense of caring for them (sect. 77). Sick and 
hopelessly infirm slaves were taken to an island in the Tiber and left 
there to die of starvation and exposure. In many cases, as a measure 
of precaution, the slaves were forced to work in chains and to sleep 
in subterranean prisons. Their bitter hatred towards their masters, 
engendered by harsh treatment, is witnessed by the well-known 
proverb, " As many enemies as slaves," and by the servile revolts of 
the republican period. 

Slaves were treated better under the Empire than under the later 
Republic — a change to be attributed, doubtless, to the influence of 
Stoicism and of Christianity. From the first century of the Empire 
forward there is observable a growing sentiment of humanity towards 
the bondsman. Imperial edicts take away from the master the right 
to kill his slave or to sell him to the trader in gladiators, or even to 
treat him with undue severity, while the Christian priests encouraged 
the freeing of slaves as an act good for the soul of the master. 

201. Transformation of Slavery into Serfdom. Besides the teach- 
ings of philosophy and religion other influences, social and economic, 
were at work ameliorating the lot of the slave, and gradually chang- 
ing the harsh system of slavery as it had developed in the ancient 






§201] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO SERFDOM 189 

world into the milder system of serfdom, which characterized the 
society and life of the Middle Ages. We have seen how in the 
Middle Empire the originally free tenant farmer was bound to 
the soil and made a serf (sect. 148). During the same period that 
the poor agricultural freeman was thus being reduced to a semi- 
servile condition, the practice grew up of giving the slave of the 
great Roman proprietor a small plot of ground cut out of the estate 
to which he belonged on conditions similar to those on which the 
serf-peasant held his little farm. Custom soon decreed that the pos- 
sessor of such a holding should not be disturbed in its enjoyment so 
long as'he paid the fixed rent in produce or in personal service, and, 
furthermore, that it should be an hereditary possession. By the time 
of the break-up of the Empire in the West, this revolution was far 
advanced. It was hastened by the incoming of the barbarians, and 
was well-nigh completed by the seventh or eighth century. The 
former slave had become a serf. His lot was still hard, but he had 
gained much. He was no longer a mere chattel : he could not be 
bought and sold. He could not be separated from his family. 
Certain of the work days were his own. He could accumulate 
property. He had secured a part of the rights of a man. 

Thus gradually and silently was effected this great revolution, 
which perhaps more than any other change marked the transforma- 
tion of the ancient into the mediaeval world, and announced the 
opening of a new epoch in the history of western Europe. 

Selections from the Sources. Cato, On Agriculture, chap, ii (the duties of 
a Roman proprietor). Tacitus, Dialogue concerning Oratory, chaps, xxviii, 
xxix (the old and the new education). Munro's Source Book, pp. 179-216; 
Davis's Readings (Rome), pp. 211-265. 

References (Modern). Lanciani, Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent 
Discoveries and New Discoveries in the Forum. Fowler, History of Roman 
Literature. Sellar, The Roman Poets of the Republic and The Roman Poets of 
the Augustan Age. Mackail, Latin Literature. Hadley, Introduction to 
Roman Law, lect. iii, " The Roman Law before Justinian." Gibbon, chap, xliv 
(for Roman jurisprudence ; this chapter is one of the most noted of Gibbon's 
great work). Inge, Social Life in Rome under the Ccssars. Guhl and Koner, 
The Life of the Greeks and Romans (consult index). Lecky, History of Euro- 
pean Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (a book of the first importance; 
the student is recommended to read vol. i, chap. ii). Dill, Roman Society in 



190 



SOCIAL LIFE 



the Last Century of the Western Empire (read bk. v, " Characteristics of Roman 
Education and Culture in the Fifth Century"). Preston and Dodge, The 
Private Life of the Romans. Gilman, The Story of Rome, chap, xviii, " Some 
Manners and Customs of the Roman People." 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Roman art: Reinach, Apollo, pp. 87-94. 
2. Education of the Roman boy: Johnston, The Private Life of the Romans, 
chap. iv. 3. The gladiatorial combats : Johnston, The Private Life of the 
Romans, pp. 242-264 ; Friedlander, Roman Life and Manners, vol. ii, chap, i, 
pp. 41-62. 4. Roman luxury : Friedlander, Roman Life and Manners, vol. ii, 
chap, ii ; Davis, The Lnfluence of Wealth in Lmperial Rome, pp. 152-187. 
5. Character and motives of Roman benefactions : Abbott, The Common 
P:ople of Ancient Rome, pp. 179-204. 




PART II. THE ROMANO-GERMAN 
OR TRANSITION AGE 

(476-800 A.D.) 

CHAPTER XII 

THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 

In connection with the history of the break-up of the Roman 
Empire in the West we have already given some account of the 
migrations and settlements of the German tribes. In the present 
chapter we shall indicate briefly the political fortunes, for the two 
centuries and more following the dissolution of the Roman govern- 
ment in the West, of the principal kingdoms set up by the German 
chieftains in the different parts of the old Empire. 

202. Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (493-554 a.d.). Odoacer will be 
recalled as the barbarian chief who dethroned the last of the West- 
ern Roman emperors (sect. 174). His feeble government in Italy 
lasted only seventeen years, when it was brought to an end by the 
invasion of the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) under Theodoric, the 
greatest of their chiefs, who set up in Italy a new dominion known 
as the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. 

The reign of Theodoric covered thirty-three years (493-527 a.d.) 
— years of such quiet and prosperity as Italy had not known since 
the happy era of the Antonines. The king made good his promise 
that his reign should be such that " the only regret of the people 
should be that the Goths had not come at an earlier period." His 
effort was to preserve Roman civilization, and to this end he repaired 
the old Roman roads, restored the monuments of the Empire that 
were falling into decay, and in so far as possible maintained Roman 
law and custom. 

191 



192 



THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 



[§203 



The kingdom established by the rare abilities of Theodoric lasted 
only twenty-seven years after his death. 1 Justinian, emperor of the 
East, taking advantage of that event, sent his generals to deliver 
Italy from the rule of the barbarians. The last of the Ostrogothic 
kings fell in battle, and Italy, with her fields ravaged and her cities 
in ruins, was for a brief time reunited to the Empire 2 (544 a.d.). 

203. Kingdom of the Visigoths (415-711 a.d.). The Visigoths 
(Western Goths) were already in possession of southern Gaul and 

the greater part of 
Spain when the Ro- 
man imperial govern- 
ment in the - West 
was brought to an 
end by the act of 
Odoacer and his com- 
panions. They were 
driven south of the 
Pyrenees by the kings 
of the Franks, but 
held their possessions 
in Spain until the be- 
ginning of the eighth century, when their rule was ended by the 
Saracens (sect. 249). When thus overturned, the Visigothic kingdom 
had lasted nearly three hundred years. During this time the con- 
querors had mingled with the old Romanized inhabitants of Spain, 
so that in the veins of the Spaniard of to-day is blended the blood 
of Iberian, Celt, Roman, and Teuton, together with that of the last 
intruder, the African Moor. 

204. Kingdom of the Vandals (429-533 a.d.). We have already 
spoken of the establishment in North Africa of the kingdom of the 
Vandals, and told how, under the lead of their king, Geiseric, they 
bore in triumph down the Tiber the heavy spoils of Rome (sect. 173). 

1 Theodoric's chief minister and adviser was Cassiodorus, a statesman and writer of 
Roman birth, whose constant but unfortunately vain effort was to effect a union of the 
conquerors and the conquered, and thus to establish in Italy a strong and permanent 
Romano-Gothic state under the rule of the royal house of the Ostrogoths. 

2 See sect. 238. 




Fig. 55. Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna 



§205] FRANKS UNDER THE MEROVINGIANS 193 

Being Arian Christians, the Vandals persecuted with furious zeal 
the orthodox party, the followers of Athanasius. Moved by the 
entreaties of the African Catholics, Justinian, the Eastern emperor, 
sent his general Belisarius to drive the barbarians from Africa. The 
expedition was successful, and Carthage and the fruitful fields of 
Africa were restored to the Empire after having suffered the inso- 
lence of the barbarian conquerors for more than a hundred years. 
The Vandals remaining in the country were gradually absorbed by the 
old Roman population, and after a few generations no certain trace of 
the barbarian invaders could be detected in the physical appearance, 
the language, or the customs of the inhabitants of the African coast. 
The Vandal nation had disappeared ; the name alone remained. 

205. The Franks under the Merovingians (486-752 A.D.). Even 
long before the fall of Rome the Franks, as we have seen (sect. 170), 
were on the soil of Gaul, laying there the foundations of the French 
nation and monarchy. Among their several chieftains at this time 
was Chlodwig or Clovis. Upon the break-up of the Roman Empire 
in the West, Clovis conceived the ambition of erecting a kingdom 
upon the ruins of the Roman power. He attacked Syagrius, the 
Roman governor of a district in northern Gaul still independent of 
the barbarians, and at Soissons gained a decisive victory over his 
forces (486 a. d.). Thus was destroyed forever the last remnant in 
Gaul of that. Roman authority which had been established among 
its barbarian tribes more than five centuries before by the conquests 
of Julius Caesar. 

Clovis in a short time extended his authority over the greater 
part of Gaul, reducing to the condition of tributaries the various 
Teutonic tribes that had taken possession of different portions of 
the country. Upon his death (511 a. d.) his extensive dominions, 
in accordance with the ancient Teutonic law of inheritance, were 
divided among his four sons. About a century and a half of dis- 
cord followed, by the end of which time the Merovingians 1 had 
become so feeble and inefficient that they were contemptuously 
called rois faineants, or "do-nothing kings," and an ambitious officer 
of the crown known as mayor of the palace {major domus), in a 

1 So called from Merowig, an early chieftain of the race. 



194 THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS [§206 

way that will be explained a little later, pushed aside the weak 
Merovingian king and gave to the Frankish monarchy a new royal 
line — the Carolingian. 

206. Kingdom of the Lombards (568-774 A.D.). Barely a decade 
had passed after the recovery of Italy from the Ostrogoths by the 
Eastern emperor Justinian (sect. 238), before a large part of the 
peninsula was again lost to the Empire through its conquest by 
another barbarian tribe known as the Lombards. When they entered 
Italy the Lombards were Christians of the Arian sect ; but in time 
they became converts to the orthodox faith, and Pope Gregory I 
bestowed upon their king a* diadem which came to be known as the 
" Iron Crown," for the reason that there was wrought into it what 
was believed to be one of the nails of the cross upon which Christ 
had suffered. 

The kingdom of the Lombards was destroyed by Charles the 
• Great, the most noted of the Frankish rulers, in the year 774; but 
the blood of the invaders had by this time become intermingled with 
that of the former subjects of the Empire, so that throughout all 
that part of the peninsula which is still called Lombardy after them 
one will to-day occasionally see the fair hair and light complexion 
which reveal the strain of German blood in the veins of the present 
inhabitants. 

One important result of the Lombard conquest of Italy was the 
destruction of the political unity established by the Romans and the 
breaking up of the country into a multitude of petty states. This 
resulted from the imperfect nature of the conquest and from the 
loose feudal constitution of the Lombard monarchy, which was rather 
a group of virtually independent duchies than a real kingdom. 

207. The Anglo-Saxons in Britain. We have already seen how in 
the time of Rome's distress the Angles and Saxons secured a footing 
in Britain (sect. 170). By the close of the sixth century the invading 
bands had set up in the island eight or nine or perhaps more king- 
doms — frequently designated, though somewhat inaccurately, as the 
Heptarchy. For the space of two hundred years there was an almost 
perpetual strife for supremacy among the leading states. Finally, 
Egbert, king of Wessex (802-839 A - D -)> brought all the other 



§20S] TEUTONIC TRIBES OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE 195 

kingdoms to a subject or tributary condition, and became in reality 
— though he seems never, save on one occasion, to have actually 
assumed the title — the first king of England. 

208. Teutonic Tribes outside the Empire. We have now spoken 
of the most important of the Teutonic tribes which forced themselves 
within the limits of the Roman Empire in the West, and that there, 
upon the ruins of the civilization they had overthrown, laid or helped 
to lay the foundations of the modern nations of Italy, Spain, PYance, 
and England. Beyond the boundaries of the old Empire were still 
other tribes and clans of this same mighty family of nations — tribes 
and clans that were destined to play great parts in European history. 

On the east, beyond the Rhine, were the ancestors of the modern 
Germans. Notwithstanding the immense hosts that the forests and 
morasses of Germany had poured into the Roman provinces, the 
western portion of the fatherland, 1 in the sixth century of our era, 
seemed still as crowded as before the great migration began. These 
tribes were yet barbarians in manners, and, for the most part, pagans 
in religion. In the northwest of Europe were the Scandinavians, the 
ancestors of the modern Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians. They were 
as yet untouched either by the civilization or the religion of Rome. 

Selections from the Sources. The Letters of ' Cassiodorus (Thomas Hodgkin's 
trans.), bk. i, letters 24, 35; bk. ii, letters 32, 34; bk. iii, letters 17, 19, 29, 
31, 43; bk. xi, letters 12, 13; bk. xii, letter 20. (These letters are invaluable 
in showing what was the general condition of things in the transition period 
between ancient and mediaeval times.) 

References (Modern). Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders and Theodoric the 
Goth (Hodgkin is recognized as the best authority on the period of the migra- 
tion). Gummere, Germanic Origins (an authoritative and interesting work on 
the early culture of the Germans). Gibbon, chaps, xxxviii, xxxix. Church, 
The Beginning of the Middle Ages, chaps, i-v. Emerton, An Introduction to 
the Study of the Middle Ages, chaps, vi, vii. The Cambridge Medieval History, 
vol. i, chap, xv ; vol. ii, chaps, iv-vii. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Life and work of Cassiodorus ; his state 
papers: Hodgkin, Theodoric, chap, ix, pp. 160-173. 2 - The German conquest' 
of Gaul : Adams, The Growth of the French A r alion, chap. ii. 

1 The Slavs had pushed into the eastern parts of Germany. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

I. THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS 

209. Introductory. The most important event in the history of the 
tribes that took possession of the Roman Empire in the West was 
their conversion to Christianity. Many of the barbarians were con- 
verted before or soon after their entrance into the Empire ; to this 
circumstance the Roman provinces owed their immunity from the 
excessive cruelties which pagan barbarians seldom fail to inflict upon a 
subjected enemy. Alaric left untouched the treasures of the churches 
of the Roman Christians because his own faith was also Christian 
(sect. 167). For like reason the Vandal king Geiseric yielded to the 
prayers of Pope Leo the Great and promised to leave to the inhabit- 
ants of the Imperial City their lives (sect. 173). The more tolerable 
fate of Italy, Spain, and Gaul, as compared with the hard fate of 
Britain, is owing, in part at least, to the fact that the tribes which 
overran those countries had become, in the main, converts to Chris- 
tianity before they crossed the boundaries of the Empire, while the 
Saxons, when they entered Britain, were still untamed pagans. 

210. Conversion of the Goths, Vandals, and Other Tribes. The 
first converts to Christianity among the barbarians beyond the limits 
of the Empire were won from among the Goths. Foremost of the 
apostles that arose among them was Ulfllas, who translated the Scrip- 
tures into the Gothic language, omitting from his version, however, 
the Books of the Kings, as he feared that the stirring recital of wars 
and battles in that portion of the Word might kindle into too fierce a 
flame the martial ardor of his new converts. 

What happened in the case of the Goths happened also in the case 
of most of the barbarian tribes that participated in the overthrow of 
the Roman Empire in the West. By the time of the fall of Rome the 

196 






§211] CONVERSION OF THE FRANKS 197 

Goths, the Vandals, the Suevi, and the Burgundians had become 
proselytes to Christianity. They, however, professed the Arian creed, 
which had been condemned by the great council of the Church held 
at Nicaea during the reign of Constantine the Great (sect. 154). 
Hence they were regarded as heretics by the Catholic Church, and 
all had to be reconverted to the orthodox creed. This good work was 
gradually and almost perfectly accomplished. 

The remaining Teutonic tribes of whose conversion we shall speak 
— the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, and the chief tribes of Germany — 
embraced at the outset the orthodox Catholic faith. 

211. Conversion of the Franks. The Franks, when they entered 
the Empire, like the Angles and Saxons when they landed in Britain, 
were still pagans. Christianity gained way very slowly among them 
until a supposed interposition by the Christian God in their behalf 
led the king and nation to adopt the new religion in place of their old 
faith. The circumstances, as reported by tradition, were these. In a 
terrible battle between the Alemanni and the Franks under their 
king Clovis, the situation of the Franks at length became desperate. 
Then Clovis, falling upon his knees, called upon the God of the 
Christians, and vowed that if he would give victory to his arms he 
would become his follower. The battle turned in favor of the Franks, 
and Clovis, faithful to his vow, was baptized, and with him three 
thousand of his warriors (496 a. d.). 

This story of the conversion of Clovis and his Franks illustrates 
how the barbarians' belief in omens and divine interpositions, and 
particularly their feeling that if their gods did not do for them all they 
wanted done they had a right to set them aside and choose others in 
their stead, contributed to their conversion, and how the reception of 
the new faith was often a tribal or national affair rather than a matter 
of personal conviction. 

212. Importance of the Conversion of the Franks. "The con- 
version of the Franks," says the historian Milman, " was the most 
important event in its remote as well as its immediate consequences 
in European history." It was of such moment for the reason that 
the Franks embraced the orthodox Catholic faith, while almost all 
the other German invaders of the Empire had embraced the heretical 



198 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§213 

Arian creed. This secured them the loyalty of their Roman subjects 
and also gained for them the official favor of the Church of Rome. 
Thus was laid the basis of the ascendancy in the West of the 
Frankish kings. 

213. Augustine's Mission to England. In the year 596 a. d. Pope 
Gregory I sent the monk Augustine with a band of forty companions 
to" teach the Christian faith in Britain, in whose people he had become 
interested through seeing in the slave market at Rome some fair-faced 
captives from that remote region. 

The monks were favorably received by the English, who listened 
attentively to the story the strangers had come to tell them, and 
being persuaded that the tidings were true, they burned the tem- 
ples of Woden and Thor, and were in large numbers baptized in 
the Christian faith. 

One of the most important consequences of the conversion of 
Britain was the reestablishment of that connection of the island with 
Roman civilization which had been severed by the calamities of the 
fifth century. 

214. The Conversion of Ireland. The spiritual conquest of Ireland 
was effected largely by a zealous priest named Patricius (died about 
469 a.d.), better known as St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. 
With such success were his labors attended that by the time of his 
death a great part of the island had embraced the Christian faith. 
Never did any race receive the Gospel with more ardent enthusiasm. 
The Irish or Celtic Church sent out its devoted missionaries into the 
Pictish highlands, into the forests of Germany, and into the wilds 
of Alps and Apennines. 

Among the numerous religious houses founded by the Celtic mis- 
sionaries was the famous monastery established 563 a.d. by the Irish 
monk St. Columba, on the little isle of Iona, just off the Pictish coast. 
Iona became a most renowned center of Christian learning and mis- 
sionary zeal, and for almost two centuries was the point from which 
radiated light through the darkness of the surrounding heathenism. 

215. The Conversion of Germany. The conversion of the tribes of 
Germany was effected chiefly by Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish 
missionaries. The great apostle of Germany was the Saxon Winfrid, 



§216] 



PAGANISM REACTS ON CHRISTIANITY 



199 



better known as St. Boniface, who was born about 688 a. d. During 
a long and intensely active life he founded schools and monasteries, 
organized churches, preached and baptized, and at last died a martyr's 
death (753 a.d.). Through him, as says Milman, the Saxon invasion 
of England flowed back upon the Continent. 1 

216. Reaction of Paganism on Christianity. Thus were the con- 
querors of the Empire met and conquered by Christianity. The 
victory, it must be confessed, was in a great degree a victory rather 
in name than in fact. The Church could not all at once leaven the 
great mass of heathenism which had so suddenly been brought within 

its pale. For a long 

time after they were 
called Christians, the 
barbarians, coarse 
and cruel and self- 
willed and supersti- 
tious as they were, 
understood very little 
of the doctrines and 
exhibited still less of 
the true spirit of the 
religion they pro- 
fessed. To this de- 
pressing reaction of Teutonic barbarism upon the Church is, without 
doubt^to be attributed in large measure the deplorable moral state 
of Europe during so large a part of mediaeval times. 




Fig. 56. Ruins of the Celebrated Monastery 
of Iona. (After an old drawing) 

" That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would 

not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety 

would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." — 

Dr. Johnson, A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland 



II. THE RISE OF MONASTICISM 

217. Monasticism Denned ; St. Anthony, " the Father of the Her- 
mits." It was during the period between the third and the sixth 
century that there grew up in the Church the institution known as 
Monasticism. This was so remarkable a system, and one that ex- 
erted so profound an influence upon mediaeval and even later history, 
that we must here acquaint ourselves with at least its spirit and aims. 

1 The story of the conversion of the Scandinavian peoples, of the Eastern Slavs, and 
of the Hungarians belongs to a later period than that embraced by our present survey. 



200 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§218 

The term monasticism, in its widest application, denotes a life of 
austere self-denial and of seclusion from the world, with the object 
of promoting the interests of the soul. As thus defined, the system 
embraced two prominent classes of ascetics : (i) hermits or ancho- 
rites — persons who, retiring from the world, lived solitary lives in 
desolate places ; (2) cenobites or monks, who formed communities 
and lived usually under a common roof. 

St. Anthony, an Egyptian ascetic (born about 251 a.d.), who by 
his example and influence gave a tremendous impulse to the strange 
enthusiasm, is called the " father of the hermits." The romance of 
his life, written by the celebrated Athanasius, stirred the whole 
Christian world and led thousands to renounce society and in imita- 
tion of the saint to flee to the desert. It is estimated that before the 
close of the fourth century the population of the desert in many 
districts in Egypt was equal to that of the cities. 

218. Monasticism in the West. During the fourth century the 
anchorite type of asceticism, which was favored by the mild climate 
of the Eastern lands and especially by that of Egypt, assumed in 
some degree the monastic form ; that is to say, the fame of this or 
that anchorite or hermit drew about him a number of disciples, 
whose rude huts or cells formed what was known as a laura, the 
nucleus of a monastery. 

Soon after the cenobite system had been established in the East 
it was introduced into Europe, and in an astonishingly short space 
of time spread throughout all the Western countries where^ Chris- 
tianity had gained a foothold. Here it prevailed to the almost total, 
exclusion of the hermit mode of life. Monasteries arose on every 
side. The number that fled to these retreats was vastly augmented 
by the. disorder and terror attending the invasion of the barbarians 
and the overthrow of the Empire in the West. 

219. The Rule of St. Benedict. With a view to introducing some 
sort of regularity into the practices and austerities of the monks, rules 
were early prescribed for their observance. The three essential re- 
quirements or vows of the monk were poverty, chastity, and obedience. 

The greatest legislator of the monks was St. Benedict of Nursia 
(480-543 a.d.), the founder of the celebrated monastery of Monte 



§220] SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS 



20I 



Cassino, situated midway between Rome and Naples in Italy. His 
code was to the religious world what the Corpus Juris Civilis of 
Justinian (sect. 192) was to the lay society of Europe. Many of his 
rules were most wise and practical, as, for instance, one that made 
manual work a pious duty, and another that required the monk to 
spend an allotted time each day in sacred reading. 

The monks who subjected themselves to the rule of St. Benedict 
were known as Benedictines. The order became immensely popular. 
At one time it embraced about 



forty thousand abbeys. 

220. Services Rendered by the 
Monks to Civilization. The early 
establishment of the monastic 
system in the Church resulted in 
great advantages to the new world 
that was shaping itself out of the 
ruins of the old. The monks, es- 
pecially the Benedictines, became 
agriculturists, and by patient labor 
converted the wild and marshy 
lands which they received as gifts 
from princes and others into fruit- 
ful fields, thus redeeming from barrenness some of the most desolate 
districts of Europe. The monks, in a word, formed the vanguard of 
civilization towards the wilderness. 

The monks also became missionaries, and it was largely to their 
zeal and devotion that the Church owed her speedy and signal 
victory over the barbarians. 

The quiet air of the monasteries nourished learning as well as 
piety. The monks became teachers, and under the shelter of the 
monasteries established schools which were the nurseries of learn- 
ing during the earlier Middle Ages and the centers for centuries of 
the best intellectual life of Europe. 

The monks also became copyists, and with great painstaking and 
industry gathered and multiplied ancient manuscripts, and thus pre- 
served and transmitted to the modern world much classical learning 




Fig. 57. A Monk Copyist. (From 
a manuscript of the fifteenth century) 



202 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§ 2Z1 

and literature that would otherwise have been lost. Almost all the 
remains of the Greek and Latin classics that we possess have come 
to us through the agency of the monks. 

The monks became, further, the almoners of the pious and the 
wealthy, and distributed alms to the poor and needy. Everywhere 
the monasteries opened their hospitable doors to the weary, the sick, 
and the discouraged. In a word, these retreats were the inns, the 
asylums, and the hospitals of the mediaeval ages. 

III. THE RISE OF THE PAPACY 

221. The Empire within the Empire. Long before the fall of 
Rome there had begun to grow up within the Roman Empire an 
ecclesiastical state, which in its constitution and its administrative 
system was shaping itself upon the imperial model. This spiritual 
empire, like the secular empire, possessed a hierarchy of officers, of 
which deacons, priests or presbyters, and bishops were the most 
important. The bishops collectively formed what is known as the 
episcopate. There were four grades of bishops, namely, country 
bishops, city bishops, metropolitans or archbishops, and patriarchs. 
At the end of the fourth century there were five patriarchates, that 
is, regions ruled by" patriarchs. These centered in the great cities 
of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. 

Among the patriarchs, the patriarchs of Rome were accorded 
almost universally a precedence in honor and dignity. They claimed 
further a precedence in authority and jurisdiction, and this was 
already very widely recognized. Before the close of the eighth cen- 
tury there was firmly established over a great part of Christendom 
what we may call an ecclesiastical monarchy. 

Besides the influence of great men — such as Leo the Great, 
Gregory the Great, and Nicholas I — who held the seat of St. Peter, 
there were various historical circumstances that contributed to the 
realization by the Roman bishops of their claim to supremacy. In 
the following paragraphs we shall speak briefly of several of these 
favoring circumstances. These matters constitute the great land- 
marks, in the rise and early growth of the Papacy. 



§222] THE RISE OF THE PAPACY 203 

222. The Belief in the Primacy of St. Peter and in the Founding 
by him of the Church at Rome. It came to be believed that the 
apostle Peter had been given by the Master a sort of primacy 
among his fellow apostles. It also came to be believed that Peter 
himself had founded the church at Rome, and had suffered martyr- 
dom there under the emperor Nero. 

These beliefs and interpretations of history, which make the Roman 
bishops the successors of Peter and the holders of his seat, con- 
tributed greatly to enhance their reputation and to justify their claim 
to a primacy of authority over all the dignitaries of the Church. 

223. Advantages of their Position at the Political Center of the 
World. The claims of the Roman bishops were in the early cen- 
turies greatly favored by the spell in which the world was held by 
the name and prestige of imperial Rome. Thence it had been accus- 
tomed to receive commands in all temporal matters ; how very nat- 
ural, then, that thither it should turn for command and guidance 
in spiritual affairs. 

The Roman bishops in thus occupying the geographical and 
political center of the world enjoyed a great advantage over all 
other bishops and patriarchs. The halo that during many cen- 
turies of wonderful history had gathered about the Eternal City 
came naturally to invest with a kind of aureole the head of the 
Christian bishop. 

224. Effect of the Removal of the Imperial Government to Con- 
stantinople. Nor was this advantage that was given the Roman 
bishops by their position at Rome lost when the old capital ceased 
to be an imperial city. The removal, by the acts of Diocletian and 
Constantine, of the chief seat of the government to the East, instead 
of diminishing the power and dignity of the Roman bishops, tended 
greatly to promote their claims and authority. It left the pontiff the 
foremost personage in Rome. 

225. The Pastor as Protector of Rome. Again, when the barbarians 
came, there came another occasion for the Roman bishops to widen 
their influence and enhance their authority. Rome's extremity was 
their opportunity. Thus it will be recalled how mainly through the 
intercession of the pious Pope Leo the Great the fierce Attila was 



204 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§226 

persuaded to turn back and spare the Imperial City (sect. 167) ; and 
how the same bishop, in the year 455 a.d., also appeased in a meas- 
ure the wrath of the Vandal Geiseric and shielded the inhabitants 
from the worst passions of a barbarian soldiery (sect. 173). 

Thus when the emperors, the natural defenders of the capital, 
were unable to protect it, the unarmed Pastor was able, through the 
awe and reverence inspired by his holy office, to render services that 
could not but result in bringing increased honor and dignity to the 
Roman see. 

226. Effects upon the Papacy of the Extinction of the Roman 
Empire in the West. But if the misfortunes of the Empire in the 
West tended to the enhancement of the reputation and influence of 
the Roman bishops, much more did its final downfall tend to the 
same end. 

Thus, upon the surrender of the sovereignty of the West into the 
hands of the emperor of the East, the bishops of Rome became 
the most important personages in western Europe, and, being so far 
removed from the court at Constantinople, gradually assumed almost 
imperial powers. They became the arbiters between the barbarian 
chiefs and the Italians, and to them were referred for decision the 
disputes arising between cities, states, and kings. Especially did the 
bishops and archbishops throughout the West in their contests with 
the Arian barbarian rulers look to Rome for advice and help. It is 
easy to see how greatly these things tended to strengthen the authority 
and increase the influence of the Roman bishops. 

227. The Missions of Rome. Again, the early missionary zeal of 
the Church of Rome made her the mother of many churches, all of 
whom looked up to her with affectionate and grateful loyalty. Thus 
the Angles and Saxons, won to the faith by the missionaries of 
Rome, conceived a deep veneration for the holy see and became 
its most devoted children. To Rome it was that the Christian 
Britons made their most frequent pilgrimages, and thither they sent 
their offering of St. Peter's pence. And when the Saxons became 
missionaries to their pagan kinsmen of the Continent, they trans- 
planted into the heart of Germany these same feelings of filial 
attachment and love. 



§228] THE RISE OF THE PAPACY 205 

228. Result of the Fall of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria 
before the Saracens. In the seventh century all the great cities of 
the East fell into the hands of the Mohammedans. 1 This was a 
matter of tremendous consequence for the Church of Rome, since 
in every one of these great capitals there was, or might have 
been, a rival of the Roman bishop. The virtual erasure of An- 
tioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria from the map of Christendom left 
only one city, Constantinople, that could possibly nourish a rival 
of the Roman Church. Thus did the very misfortunes of Christen- 
dom give an added security to the ever-increasing authority of the 
Roman prelate. 

229. The Popes become Temporal Sovereigns. A dispute about 
the use of images in worship, known in church history as the " War 
of the Iconoclasts," 2 which broke out in the eighth century between 
the Greek churches of the East and the Latin churches of the West, 
drew after it far-reaching consequences as respects the growing power 
of the Roman pontiffs. 

Leo the Isaurian, who came to the throne of Constantinople 
716 a.d., was a most zealous iconoclast. The Greek churches of the 
East having been cleared of images, the emperor resolved to clear 
' also the Latin churches of the West of these " symbols of idolatry." 
To this end he issued a decree that they should not be used. The 
bishop of Rome, Pope Gregory II, not only opposed the execution 
of the edict, but by the ban of excommunication cut off the emperor 
and all the iconoclastic churches of the East from communion with 
the true Catholic Church. 

In this quarrel with the Eastern emperors the Roman bishops 
formed an alliance with the Frankish princes of the Carolingian 
house. We shall a little later tell briefly the story of this alliance. 3 
Never did allies render themselves more serviceable to each other. 
The popes consecrated the Frankish chieftains as kings and em- 
perors ; the grateful Frankish kings defended the popes against all 
their enemies, imperial and barbarian, and dowering them with cities 
and provinces, laid the basis of their temporal power. 

1 See Chapter XVI. 2 Iconoclast means "image breaker." 

3 See Chapter XVII. 



206 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§229 

Such in broad outline was the way in which grew up the Papacy, 
an institution which, far beyond all others, was destined to mold the 
fortunes and direct the activities of Western Christendom throughout 
the mediaeval time. 

Selections from the Sources. Bede, Ecclesiastical History, bk. i, chaps, xxiii- 
xxv ; bk. ii, chaps, i, xiii ; bk. iii, chaps, iii, xxv. Translations and Reprints 
(University of Pennsylvania), vol. ii, No. 7, "Life of Saint Columban" (an 
instructive biography of an Irish monk ; the subject of this biography is some- 
times named Columba the Younger, to distinguish him from St. Columba of 
Iona). Henderson's Select Documents of the Middle Ages, pp. 274-314, "The 
Rule of Saint Benedict " ; Robinson's Readings, vol. i, chaps, iv, v ; Ogg's 
Sotirce Book of Mediceval History, chap. vi. 

References (Modern). Zimmer, The Irish Element in Mediceval Culture (an 
authoritative and interesting account of the services rendered mediaeval 
civilization by the Irish monks). Kingsley, The Hermits. Montalembert 
(Count DE), The Monks of the West from Saint Benedict to Saint Bernard, 
7 vols, (an ardent eulogy of monasticism). Lecky, History of European Morals, 
vol. ii, chap, iv (gives the light and the shade of the picture). Wishart, A 
Short History of Monks and Monasteries (the best short account in English of 
the origin, ideals, and effects of the monastic system). Putnam, Books and 
their Makers during the Middle Ages, vol. i (for the labors of the monks as 
copyists and illuminators). Fisher, History of the Christian Church, the 
earlier chapters (concise, fair, and scholarly). Emerton, Introduction to the 
Study of the Middle Ages, chap, ix, " The Rise of the Christian Church." 
Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages, chap, vi, " The Formation of the 
Papacy." Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers, chap, ix, " The 
Primacy of Peter " and chap, x, " The Supremacy of the Popes " (an authorita- 
tive statement of the Catholic view of these matters). The Cambridge Medieval 
History, vol. i, chap, xviii ; vol. ii, chaps, viii, xvi, xxii. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. The religion of the Germans and their con- 
version : Seignobos, History of Mediceval and Modem Civilization, chap. ii. 
2. The scriptorium and the labors of the monks as copyists, chroniclers, and 
authors : Putnam, Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages, vol. i, pp. 3- 
145. 3. St. Boniface and the conversion of the Western Germans : Merivale, 
The Continental Teutons, chap. vii. 4. The monasteries as industrial colonies : 
Cunningham, Western Civilization (Mediaeval and Modern Times), pp. 35-40. 
5. St. Benedict and the Benedictine Rule : Wishart, A Short History of Monks 
and Monasteries, chap. iii. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE FUSION OF LATIN AND TEUTON 

230. Introductory. The conversion of the barbarians and the 
development in Western Christendom of the central authority of the 
Papacy prepared the way for the introduction among the Northern 
races of the arts and the culture of Rome, and hastened in Italy, 
Spain, and Gaul the fusion into a single people of the Latins and 
the Teutons, of which important matter we shall treat in the present 
chapter. We shall tell how these two races, upon the soil of the 
old Empire in the West, intermingled their blood, their languages, 
their laws, their usages and customs, to form new peoples, new 
tongues, and new institutions. 

231. The Romance Nations. In some districts the barbarian in- 
vaders and the Roman provincials were kept apart for a long time 
by the bitter antagonism of race, and by a sense of injury on the one 
hand and a feeling of disdainful superiority on the other. But for the 
most part the. Teutonic intruders and the Latin-speaking inhabitants 
of Italy, Spain, and France very soon began freely to mingle their 
blood by family alliances. 

It is quite impossible to say what proportion the Teutons bore 
to the Romans. Of course the proportion varied in the different 
countries. In none of the countries named, however, was it large 
enough to absorb the Latinized population ; on the contrary, the 
barbarians were themselves absorbed, yet not without essentially 
changing the body into which they were incorporated. Thus, about 
the end of the fourth century everything in Italy, Spain, and France 
— dwellings, cities, dress, customs, language, laws, soldiers — reminds 
us of Rome. A little later and a great change has taken place. The 
barbarians have come in. For a time we see everywhere, jostling 
each other in the streets and markets, crowding each other in the 
theaters and courts, kneeling together in the churches, the former 

207 



208 THE FUSION OF LATIN AND TEUTON [§232 

Romanized subjects of the Empire and their uncouth Teutonic con- 
querors. But by the close of the ninth century, to speak in very 
general terms, the two elements have become quite intimately blended, 
and a century or two later Roman and Teuton have alike disappeared, 
and we are introduced to Italians, Spaniards, and Frenchmen. These 
we call Romance nations, because at base they are Roman. 

232. The Formation of the Romance Languages. During the five 
centuries of their subjection to Rome, the natives of Spain and Gaul 
forgot their barbarous dialects and came to speak a Corrupt Latin. 
Now in exactly the same way that the dialects of the Celtic tribes of 
Gaul and of the Celtiberians of Spain had given way to the more 
refined speech of the Romans did the rude languages of the Teutons 
yield to the more cultured speech of the Roman provincials. In the 
course of two or three centuries after their entrance into the Empire, 
Goths, Lombards, Burgundians, and Franks had, in a large measure, 
dropped their own tongue and were speaking that of the people they 
had subjected. 

But of course this provincial Latin underwent a great change upon 
the lips of the mixed descendants of .the Romans and Teutons. 
Owing to the absence of a common popular literature, the changes 
that took place in one country did not exactly correspond to those 
going on in another. Hence, in the course of time, we find different 
dialects springing up, and by about the ninth century the Latin has 
virtually disappeared as a spoken language, and its place been usurped 
by what will be known as the Italian, Spanish, and French languages — 
all more or less resembling the ancient Latin, and all called Romance 
tongues, because children of the old Roman speech. 

233. The Barbarian Codes. The Teutonic tribes, before they 
entered the Roman Empire, had no written laws. As soon as they 
settled in the provinces, however, they began, in imitation of the 
Romans, to frame their rules and customs into codes. In some 
countries, particularly in Spain and Italy, this work was under the 
supervision of the clergy, and hence the codes of the Teutonic 
peoples in these countries were a sort of fusion of Roman principles 
and barbarian practices. But in general these early compilations of 
laws — they were made, for the most part, between the sixth and 



§ 234] TEUTONIC LAWS 209 

ninth centuries — were not so essentially modified by Latin influence 
but that they serve as valuable and instructive, memorials of the 
customs, ideals, and social arrangements of the Teutonic peoples. 

234. The Personal Character of the Teutonic Laws. The laws of 
the barbarians, instead of being territorial as with us, were generally 
personal; that is, instead of all the inhabitants of a given country being 
subject to the same laws, there were different ones for the different 
classes of society. The Latins, for instance, were subject in private 
law only to the old Roman code, while the Teutons lived under the 
tribal rules and regulations which they had brought with them from 
beyond the Rhine and the Danube. The curious state of things 
resulting from this personality of law, as it is called, is vividly pic- 
tured by the following observation of a chronicler : " For it would 
often happen," he says, " that five men would be sitting or walking 
together, not one of whom would have the same law with any other." 

Even among themselves the Teutons knew nothing of the modern 
legal maxim that all should stand equal before the law. The penalty 
inflicted upon the evil-doer depended not upon the nature of his 
crime but upon his rank or that of the party injured. Thus slaves 
and serfs were beaten and put to death for minor offenses, while a 
freeman might atone for any crime, even for murder, by the pay- 
ment of a fine, the amount of the penalty being determined by the 
rank of the victim. 

235. Ordeals. The agencies relied upon by the Germans to 
ascertain the guilt or innocence of accused persons show' in how 
rude a state the administration of justice among them was. One 
very common method of proof was by what were called ordeals, 
in which the question was submitted to the judgment of God. 
Of these the chief were the ordeal by fire, the ordeal by water, 
and the wager of battle. 

The ordeal by fire consisted in taking in the hand a piece of red- 
hot iron, or in walking blindfolded with bare feet over a row of hot 
ploughshares laid lengthwise at irregular distances. If the person 
escaped unharmed, he was held to be innocent. Another way of 
performing the fire ordeal was by running through the flame of two 
fires built close together, or by walking over live brands. 



2IO 



THE FUSION OF LATIN AND TEUTON 



[§236 



The ordeal by water was of two kinds, by hot water and by cold. 
In the hot-water ordeal the accused person thrust his arm into boil- 
ing water, and if no hurt was visible upon the arm three days after 
the operation, the party was considered guiltless. In the cold-water 
trial the suspected person was thrown into a stream or pond ; if he 
floated, he was held to be guilty ; if he sank, innocent. The water, it 
was believed, would reject the guilty but receive the innocent into 

its bosom. 

The wager of battle 
or trial by combat was 
a solemn judicial duel. 
It was resorted to in 
the belief that God 
would give victory to 
the right. Naturally it 
was a favorite mode 
of trial among a peo- 
ple who found their 
chief delight in fight- 
ing. Even religious dis- 
putes were sometimes 
settled in this way. 

The ordeal was fre- 
quently performed by 
deputy, that is, one 
person for hire or for 
the sake of friendship 
would undertake it for another ; hence the expression " to go through 
fire and water to serve one." Especially was such substitution com- 
mon in the judicial duel, since women and ecclesiastics were generally 
forbidden to appear personally in the lists. 

236. The Revival of the Roman Law. Now the barbarian law 
system, if such it can be called, the character of which we have 
merely suggested by the preceding illustrations, gradually displaced 
the Roman law in all those countries where the two systems at first 
existed alongside each other, save in Italy and in southern France, 




Fig. 58. Trial by Combat. (From a manu- 
script of the fifteenth century ; after Lacroix) 



§236] THE REVIVAL OF THE ROMAN LAW 21 1 

where the provincials greatly outnumbered the invaders. But the ad- 
mirable jurisprudence of Rome was eventually to assert its superiority. 
About the close of the eleventh century there was a great revival in 
the study of the Roman law as embodied in the Justinian code, and 
in the course of a century or two this became either the groundwork 
or a strong modifying element in the law systems of almost all the 
peoples of Europe. 

What took place may be illustrated by reference to the fate of the 
Teutonic languages in Gaul, Italy, and Spain. As the barbarian 
tongues, after maintaining a place in those countries for two or three 
centuries, at length gave place to the superior Latin, which became 
the basis of the new Romance languages, so now in the domain of 
law the barbarian maxims and customs, though holding their place 
longer, likewise finally give way almost everywhere, in a greater 
or less degree, to the more excellent law system of the Empire. 
Rome must fulfill her destiny and give laws to the nations. 

Selections from the Sources. Translations and Reprints (University of 
Pennsylvania), vol. iv, No. 4, " Ordeals," etc. Henderson's Select Historical 
Documents, pp. 176-189, "The Salic Law," and pp. 314-319, KX Formul<z Littir- 
giccB in use at Ordeals"; Lee's Source-book of English History, chap.v, " Anglo- 
Saxon Laws"; Ogg's Source Book of Mediceval History, chap. xii. 

References (Modern). Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages, chap, viii, 
" Germanic Ideas of Law." Lea, Superstition and Force : Essays on the Wager 
of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal and Torttire. Hadley, Introduction to 
Roman Law, lect. ii, " The Roman Law since Justinian." 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. The spread of the Latin speech and the 
formation of the Romance languages: Abbott, The Common People of Ancient 
Rome, pp. 3-31. 2. The contribution made by the Germans to civilization: 
Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages, chap. v. 3. Give summary of the 
history of the wager of battle (the judicial duel) between individuals and then 
draw a parallel between this institution and the wager of battle (the interna- 
tional duel) between nations : Lea, Superstition and Force (4th ed.), pt. ii, 
chaps, i-vii. 4. The influence of the Roman law upon the law systems of 
Europe : Hadley, Introduction to Roman Law, lect. ii. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST 

237. The Era of Justinian (527-565 a. d.). Throughout the half 
century and more following the sack of Rome by the Vandals 
(sect. 173), the Eastern emperors struggled hard and sometimes 
doubtfully to withstand the waves of the barbarian inundation which 
constantly threatened to overwhelm Constantinople with the same 
awful calamities that had befallen the Imperial City of the West. 
Had the New Rome — the destined refuge for a thousand years of 
Graeco-Roman learning and culture — also gone down at this time 
before the storm, the loss to the cause of civilization would have 
been incalculable. 

Fortunately, in the year 527 a". d., there ascended the Eastern 
throne a prince of unusual ability, to whom fortune gave a general of 
such rare genius that his name has been allotted a place in the short 
list of the great commanders of the world. Justinian was the name of 
the prince, and Belisarius that of the soldier. The sovereign has given 
name to the period, which is called after him the " Era of Justinian." 

238. Justinian as the Restorer of the Empire and the " Lawgiver 
of Civilization." One of the most important matters in the reign of 
Justinian is what is termed the " Imperial Restoration," by which is 
meant the recovery from the barbarians of several of the provinces 
of the West upon which they had seized. Africa, as we have seen 
(sect. 204), was first wrested from the Vandals. Italy was next 
recovered from the Goths and again made a part of the Roman 
Empire (553 a.d.). Besides recovering from the barbarians Africa 
and Italy, Justinian also reconquered from the Visigoths the south- 
eastern part of Spain. 

But that which gives Justinian's reign a greater distinction than 
any conferred upon it by the achievements of his great generals was 
the collection and publication by him of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the 

212 



§239] 



THE EMPIRE BECOMES GREEK 



213 



" Body of the Roman Law." This work, as we have already learned 
(sect. 192), embodied all the law knowledge of the ancient Romans, 
and was the most precious legacy of Rome to the world. In causing 
its publication, Justinian earned the title of the " Lawgiver of 
Civilization." x 

239. The Empire becomes Greek. Less than a generation after 
the death of Justinian, the Arabs, of whom we shall tell in the 
following chapter, entered upon their surprising career of conquest, 
which in a short time completely changed* the face of the entire East. 




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The Roman Empire under Justinian 

The conquests of the Arabs cut off from the Empire those prov- 
inces that had the smallest Greek element, and thus rendered the 
population subject to the emperor more homogeneous, more thor- 
oughly Greek. The Roman element disappeared, and though the 
government still retained the imperial character impressed upon it by 
the conquerors of the world, the court of Constantinople became 
Greek in tone, spirit, and manners. Hence, instead of longer apply- 
ing to the Empire the designation Roman, many historians from this 
on call it the Greek or Byzantine Empire. 

1 Justinian also earned renown as one of the world's greatest builders. He rebuilt 
with increased splendor the church of Santa Sophia, which, founded by Constantine the 
Great, had been burned during a riot in his reign. The structure still stands, though 
the cross which originally surmounted the dome was in 1453 replaced by the Moslem 
crescent. In its interior decorations this edifice is regarded as one of the most beautiful 
creations of Christian art. 



214 THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST [§240 

240. Services Rendered European Civilization by the Roman Em- 
pire in the East. 1 The later Roman Empire rendered such eminent 
services to the European world that it justly deserves an important 
place in universal history. First, as a military outpost it held the 
Eastern frontier of European civilization for a thousand years against 
Asiatic barbarism. 

" Second, it was the keeper for centuries of the treasures of ancient 
civilization and the instructor of the new Western nations in law, 
in government and administration, in literature, in painting, in archi- 
tecture, and in the industrial arts. 

Third, it kept alive the imperial idea and principle, and gave this 
fruitful idea and this molding principle back to the West in the time 
of Charlemagne. Without the later Roman Empire of the East 
there would never have been a Romano-German Empire of the 
West (sect. 257). 

Fourth, it was the teacher of religion and civilization to the Slavic 
races of Eastern Europe. Russia forms part of the civilized world 
to-day largely by virtue of what she received from New Rome. 

References (Modern). Gibbon, chaps, xl-xliv (on the reign of Justinian ; 
chap, xliv deals with Roman law). Oman, The Story of the Byzantine Empire, 
chaps, iv-viii ; and The Dark Ages, chaps, v, vi. Hodgkin, Italy and her In- 
vaders, vol. iv, " The Imperial Restoration." Rawlinson, The Seventh Great 
Oriental Monarchy, chap. xxiv. Encyc. Brit., Art. "Justinian I," by James 
Bryce. Bury, History of the later Roman Empire, 2 vols, (a work of superior 
scholarship). Harrison, Byzantine History in the Early Middle Ages (a brilliant 
lecture). The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. ii, chaps, i, ii. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Justinian as a builder; St. Sophia: Oman, 
The Byzantine Empire, chap, viii, pp. 106-111; Gibbon, chap, xl (consult 
table of contents). 2. Introduction into Europe of the silk industry: Gibbon, 
chap, xl (consult table of contents). 3. The Hippodrome and the " Blues" and 
the "Greens": Oman, The Byzantine Empire, chap, ii, pp. 22-25; chap, vi, 
pp. 75-80. 

1 See Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, vol. ii, chap. xiv. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE RISE OF ISLAM 

241. The Attack from the South upon Ancient Civilization. We 

have seen the German barbarians of the North descend upon and 
wrest from the Roman Empire all its provinces in the West. We 
are now to watch a similar attack made upon the Empire by the 
Arabs of the South, and to see wrested from the emperors of the 
East a large part of the lands still remaining under their rule. 1 

242. The Religious Condition of Arabia before Mohammed. Be- 
fore the reforms of Mohammed the Arabs were idolaters. Their 
holy city was Mecca. Here was the ancient and most revered 
shrine of the Kaaba, 2 where was preserved a sacred black stone 
that was believed to have been given by an angel to Abraham. 
To this Meccan shrine pilgrimages were made from the most remote 
parts of Arabia. 

But though polytheism was the prevailing religion of Arabia, still 
there were in the land many followers of other faiths. The Jews 
especially were to be found in some parts of the peninsula in great 
numbers, having been driven from Palestine by the Roman persecu- 
tions. From them the Arab teachers had been made acquainted with 
the doctrine of one sole God. From the numerous Christian con- 
verts dwelling among them they had learned something of the 
doctrines of Christianity. 

243. Mohammed. Mohammed, the great prophet of the Arabs, 
was born in the holy city of Mecca, probably in the year 570 a.d. 
In his early years he was a shepherd and a watcher of flocks by 
night, as the great religious teachers Moses and David had been 
before him. Later he became a merchant and a camel driver. 

1 The student should make a careful comparative study of the maps after pp. 113, 
153, 181. 2 So named from its having the shape of a cube. 

215 






2l6 



THE RISE OF ISLAM 



[§244 



Mohammed possessed a soul that was early and deeply stirred 
by the contemplation of those themes that ever attract the religious 
mind. He declared that he had visions in which the angel Gabriel 
appeared to him and made to him revelations which he was com- 
manded to make known to his fellow men. The essence of the new 
faith which he was to teach was this : There is but one God, and 
Mohammed is his prophet. 

For a considerable time after having received this commission, 
Mohammed endeavored to gain adherents merely by persuasion ; but 







Fig. 59. The Kaaba at Mecca. (From a drawing) 

such was the incredulity which he everywhere met, that at the end 
of three years' preaching his disciples numbered only forty persons. 
244. The Hegira (622 A.D.). The teachings of Mohammed at last 
aroused the anger of a powerful party among the guardians of the 
national idols of the Kaaba, and they began to persecute Mohammed 
and his followers. To escape these persecutions Mohammed fled to 
the neighboring city of Medina. This Hegira, or " flight," as the 
word signifies,, occurred 622 a.d., and was' considered by the Mos- 
lems as such an important event in the history of their religion that 
they adopted it as the beginning of a new era, and from it still 
continue to reckon historical dates. 



§245] THE FAITH EXTENDED BY THE SWORD 217 

245. The Faith Extended by the Sword. His cause being warmly 
espoused by the inhabitants of Medina, Mohammed now assumed 
along with the character of a lawgiver and moral teacher that of 
a warrior. He declared it to be the will of God that the new faith 
should be spread by the sword. 

The year following the Hegira he began to attack and plunder 
caravans. The flame of a sacred war was soon kindled. Warriors 
from all quarters flocked to the standard of the prophet. Their 
reckless enthusiasm was intensified by the assurance that death met 
in fighting those who resisted the true faith insured the martyr 
immediate entrance upon the joys of paradise. Within ten years 
from the time of the assumption of the sword by Mohammed, 
Mecca had been conquered and the new creed established widely 
among the independent tribes of Arabia. 

246. The Koran and its Teachings. The doctrines of Moham- 
medanism or Islam, which means " submission to God," are con- 
tained in the Koran, which is believed by the orthodox to have been 
written from all eternity on tablets in heaven. From time to time 
Mohammed recited to his disciples portions of the " heavenly book " 
as its contents were revealed to him in his dreams and visions. 
These communications were held in the " breasts of men," or were 
written down upon pieces of pottery, the broad shoulder-bones of 
sheep, and the ribs of palm leaves. 1 Soon after the death of the 
prophet these scraps of writing were religiously collected, supple- 
mented by tradition, and then arranged chiefly according to length. 
Such was the origin of the sacred book of Islam. 

The fundamental doctrine of Islam is the unity of God : " There is 
no God save Allah " echoes through the Koran. To this is added the 
equally binding declaration that " Mohammed is the prophet of Allah." 

The Koran inculcates the practice of four cardinal virtues or 
duties. The first is prayer ; five times every day must the believer 
turn his face towards Mecca and engage in devotion. The second 
requirement is almsgiving, or payment of the so-called holy tax. 
The third is keeping the fast of Ramadan, which lasts a whole month, 

1 Palmer in the introduction to his translation of the Koran says that it is " probable 
Mohammed could neither read nor write." 



21 8 THE RISE OF ISLAM [§247 

throughout which period nothing must be eaten during the day. The 
fourth duty is making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Every person who can 
possibly do so is required to make this journey. 

247. The Conquest of Persia, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. 
For exactly one century after the death of Mohammed the caliphs 
or successors of the prophet 1 were engaged in an almost unbroken 
series of conquests. Persia was subjugated and the authority of 
the Koran was established throughout the land of the ancient fire- 
worshipers. Syria was wrested from the Eastern Roman Empire 
and Asia Minor was overrun. Egypt and North Africa, the latter 
just recently delivered from the Vandals (sect. 204), were also 
snatched from the hands of the Byzantine emperors. 

By the conquest of Syria the birthplace of Christianity was lost to 
the Christian world. By the conquest of North Africa, lands whose 
history for a thousand years had been intertwined with that of the 
opposite shores of Europe, and which at one time seemed destined 
to share in the career of freedom and progress opening to the peoples 
of that continent, were drawn back into the fatalism and the stagna- 
tion of the East. From being an extension of Europe they became 
once more an extension of Asia. 

248. Attacks upon Constantinople. Thus in only a little more than 
fifty years from the death of Mohammed his standard had been 
carried by the lieutenants of his successors through Asia to the Hel- 
lespont on the one side and across Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar 
on the other. We may expect to see the Saracens at one or both of 
these points attempt the invasion of Europe. 

The first attempt was made in the East, where the Arabs vainly 
endeavored to gain control of the Bosphorus by wresting Constanti- 
nople from the hands of the Eastern emperors. This check that the 
Saracens received before Constantinople was doubtless next in im- 
portance for European civilization to the check given their conquering 
hordes a little later in France at the great battle of Tours. 2 



1 Abu-Bekr (632-634 a, d.), Mohammed's father-in-law, was the first caliph. He 
was followed by Omar (634-644 A. d.), Othman (644-655 A. D.), and Ali (655-661 A.D.), 
all of whom fell by the hands of assassins. Ali was the last of the four so-called 
orthodox caliphs. 2 Some historians regard it as even more important. 



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§249] THE CONQUEST OF SPAIN 219 

249. The Conquest of Spain (711 a. d.). While the Moslems were 
thus being repulsed from Europe at its eastern extremity, they suc- 
ceeded in gaining a foothold in Spain. Roderic, the last of the Visi- 
gothic kings (sect. 203), was hopelessly defeated in battle, and all the 
peninsula, save some mountainous regions in the northwest, quickly 
submitted to the invaders. By % this conquest some of the fairest 
provinces of Spain were lost to Christendom for a period of eight 
hundred years. 

No sooner had the subjugation of the country been effected than 
multitudes of colonists from Arabia, Syria, and North Africa crowded 
into the peninsula, until in a short time the provinces of Seville, 
Cordova, Toledo, and Granada became predominantly Arabic in 
dress, manners, language, and religion. 

250. Invasion of France; Battle of Tours (732 a.d.). Four or five 
years after the conquest of Spain the Saracens crossed the Pyrenees 
and established themselves upon the plains of Gaul. This advance 
of the Moslem host beyond the northern wall of Spain was viewed 
with the greatest alarm by all Christendom. It looked as though 
the followers of Mohammed would soon possess all the continent. 
As Draper pictures it, the Crescent, lying in a vast semicircle upon 
the northern shore of Africa and the curving coast of Asia, with one 
horn touching the Bosphorus and the other the Straits of Gibraltar, 
seemed about to round to the full and overspread all Europe. 

In the year 732 a.d.. just one hundred years after the death of 
the prophet, the Franks, under their leader Charles Martel, and their 
allies met the Moslems upon the plains of Tours in central Gaul and 
committed to the issue of a single battle the fate of Christendom and 
the future course of history. The Arabs suffered an overwhelming 
defeat and soon withdrew behind the Pyrenees. 

The young Christian civilization of western Europe was thus 
delivered from an appalling danger such as had not threatened it 
since the fearful days of Attila and the Huns (sect. 171). 

251. The Dismemberment of the Caliphate. "At the close of the 
first century of the Hegira," writes Gibbon, " the caliphs were the 
most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe." But in a short 
time the extended empire, through the quarrels of sectaries and the 



220 THE RISE OF ISLAM [§252 

ambitions of rival aspirants for the honors of the caliphate, was broken 
in fragments, and from three capitals — from Bagdad upon the Tigris, 
from Cairo upon the Nile, and from Cordova upon the Guadalquivir 
— were issued the commands of three rival caliphs, each of whom 
was regarded by his adherents as the sole rightful spiritual and civil 
successor of Mohammed. All, however, held the great prophet in 
the "same reverence, all maintained with equal zeal the sacred char- 
acter of the Koran, and all prayed with their faces turned toward 
the holy city of Mecca. 

252. The Civilization of Arabian Islam. The Saracens were 
co-heirs of antiquity with the Germans. They made especially their 
own the scientific 1 accumulations of the ancient civilizations and 
bequeathed them to Christian Europe. From the Greeks and the 
Hindus they received the germs of astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, 
algebra, medicine, botany, and other sciences. The scientific writings 
of Aristotle, Euclid, and Galen, and Hindu treatises on astronomy 
and algebra were translated from the Greek and Sanskrit into Arabic, 
and formed the basis of the Arabian studies and investigations. 
Almost all of the sciences that thus came into their hands were im- 
proved and enriched by them, and then transmitted to European 
scholars. 2 They devised what is known from them as the Arabic or 
decimal system of notation, 3 and gave to Europe this indispensable 
instrument of all scientific investigations dependent upon mathematical 
calculations. 

In the lighter forms of literature — romance and poetry — the 
Arabs produced much that possesses a high degree of excellence. 
The inimitable tales of the Arabian Nights, besides being a valuable 



1 Gibbon affirms that no Greek poet, orator, or historian was ever translated into 
Arabic. See Decline and Fall, chap. Hi. 

2 What Europe received in science from Arabian sources is kept in remembrance 
by such words as alchemy, alcohol, alembic, algebra, alkali, almanac, azimuth, chemistry , 
elixir, zenith, and nadir. To how great an extent the chief Arabian cities became the 
manufacturing centers of the mediaeval world is indicated by the names which these 
places have given to various textile fabrics and other articles. Thus muslin comes from 
Mosul, on the Tigris, damask from Damascus, and gauze from Gaza. Damascus and 
Toledo blades tell of the proficiency of the Arab workmen in metalrurgy. 

3 The figures or numerals, with the exception of the zero symbol, employed in their 
system, they seem to have borrowed from India. 



§252] THE CIVILIZATION OF ARABIAN ISLAM 221 

commentary on Arabian life and manners at the time of the culmina- 
tion of oriental culture at the court of Bagdad, form also an addition 
to the imperishable portion of the literature of the world. 

All this literary and scientific activity naturally found expression 
in the establishment of schools, universities, and libraries. In all the 
great cities of the Arabian empire, as at Bagdad, Cairo, and Cordova, 
centuries before Europe could boast anything beyond cathedral or 
monastic schools, great universities were drawing together vast crowds 
of eager young Moslems and creating an atmosphere of learning and 
refinement. The famous " university " at Cairo, which has at the 
present day an attendance of several thousand students, is a survival 
from the great days of Arabian Islam. 

In the erection of mosques and other public edifices the Arab 
architects developed a new and striking style of architecture, — one 
of the most beautiful specimens of which is preserved to us in the 
palace of the Moorish kings at Granada, — a style which has given 
to modern builders some of their finest models. 

Selections from the Sources. The Koran is our chief source for a knowl- 
edge of Islam as a religion. The translation by Palmer, in Sacred Books of the 
East, is the best. The Speeches and Table-talk of the Prophet Mohammed (chosen 
and translated by Stanley Lane-Poole). European History Studies (University 
of Nebraska), vol. ii, No. 3, " Selections from the Koran." Robinson's Readings, 
vol. i, chap, vi, pp. 11 4-1 20 ; Ogg's Source Book of Mediceval History, chap. vii. 

References (Modern). Muir, The Cordn : its Composition and Teachings; 
The Life of Mohammed; Annals of the Early Caliphate ; and The Rise and 
Decline of Islam (all these works are based on the original sources ; they 
are, however, written in an unfriendly and unsympathetic spirit). Smith, 
Mohammed and Mohammedanism (has a short bibliography). Sprenger, 
The Life of Mohammed. IRVING, Mahomet and his Successors. GlBBON, 
chaps. 1-lii. Margoliouth, Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. Carlyle, Heroes 
and Hero-worship, lect. ii, " The Hero as Prophet." Freeman, History and 
Conquests of the Saracens (a rapid sketch by a master). Gilman, The Saracens 
from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Bagdad. Syed Ameer Ali, The Spirit of 
Islam : or the Life and Teachings of Mohammed and Short History of the Saracens. 
Poole, Studies in a Mosque. Encyc. Brit., nth ed., Arts. " Mahomet," " Ma- 
hommedan Institutions," " Mahommedan Law," " Mahommedan Religion." 
The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. ii, chaps, x-xii. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Mohammed: Carlyle, Heroes and Hero- 
worship, lect. ii, "The Hero as Prophet." 2. Some teachings of Islam: 
Gilman, The Saracens, chap. xv. 3. Selected tales from the Arabian Nights. 



CHAPTER XVII 

CHARLEMAGNE AND THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE 

IN THE WEST 

253. Introductory. We return now to the West. The Franks, 
who with the aid of their confederates withstood the advance of 
the Saracens upon the field of Tours and saved Europe from sub- 
jection to the Koran, are the people that first attract our attention. 
Among them it is that a man appears who makes the first grand 
attempt to restore the laws, the order, the institutions of the ancient 
Romans. Charlemagne or Charles the Great, their king, is the im- 
posing figure that moves amidst all the events of the times — indeed, 
is the one who makes the events and renders the period an epoch in 
universal history. 

The story of this era affords the key to very much of the subse- 
quent history of western Europe. The mere enumeration of the 
events which are to claim our attention will illustrate the important 
and germinal character of the period. We shall tell how the Mayors 
of the Palace of the Merovingian princes became the actual kings of 
the Franks ; how, through the liberality of the Frankish kings, the 
popes laid the foundations of their temporal sovereignty ; and how 
Charlemagne restored the Roman Empire in the West, and through- 
out its extended limits, in the fusion of things Roman and of things 
Germanic, laid the basis of modern civilization. 

254. How Duke Pippin became King of the Franks (751 a.d.). 
Charles Martel, who saved the Christian civilization of western 
Europe on the field of Tours, although the real head of the Frankish 
nation, was nominally only an officer of the Merovingian court 
(sect. 205). He died without ever having borne the title of king, 
notwithstanding he had exercised all the authority of that office. 

But Charles's son, Pippin III, aspired to the regal title and honors. 
He resolved to depose his titular master and to make himself king. 

222 



§255] TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES 223 

Not deeming it wise, however, to do this without the sanction of the 
Pope, he sent an embassy to represent to him the state of affairs 
and to solicit his advice. Mindful of recent favors that he had re- 
ceived at the hands of Pippin, the Pope gave his approval to the 
proposed scheme by replying that it seemed altogether reasonable 
that the one who was king in reality should be king also in name. 
This was sufficient. Childeric — such was the name of the Mero- 
vingian king — was straightway deposed, and Pippin, whose own 
deeds together with those of his illustrious father had done so much 
for the Frankish nation and for Christendom, was crowned king of 
the Franks (751 a. d.), and thus became the first of the Carolingian 
line, the name of his illustrious son Charles (Charlemagne) giving 
name to the house. 

255 . Pippin Helps to Establish the Temporal Power of the Popes 
(756 a. d.). In the year 754 a. d. Pope Stephen II, troubled by the 
king of the Lombards, besought Pippin's aid against the barbarian. 
Pippin, quick to return the favor which the head of the Church had 
rendered him in the securing of his crown, straightway interposed in 
behalf, of the Pope. He descended into Italy with an army, expelled 
the Lombards from their recent conquests, and made a donation to 
the Pope of the regained lands x (756 a. d.). As a symbol of the gift 
he laid the keys of Ravenna, Rimini, and of many other cities on the 
tomb of St. Peter. 

This endowment may be regarded as having practically laid the 
basis of the temporal sovereignty of the popes ; for although Pope 
Stephen, as it seems, had already resolved to cast off allegiance to 
the Eastern emperor and set up an independent Church state, still 
it is not probable that he could have carried out successfully such an 
enterprise had he not been aided in his project by the Frankish king. 

256. Charlemagne or Charles the Great. Pippin was followed by 
his son Charles 2 (768-814 a.d.), who by the almost unanimous 
verdict of students of the mediaeval period has been pronounced the 



1 The sovereignty of all these lands belonged nominally to the emperor at Constanti- 
nople. His claims were ignored by Pippin. 

2 During the first three years of his reign a brother named Carloman was associated 
with him in the government. 



224 RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE [§257 

most imposing personage that appears between the fifth and the 
fifteenth century. " He stands alone," says Hallam, " like a beacon 
upon a waste, or a rock in the broad ocean." His greatness has 
erected an enduring monument for itself in his name, the one by 
which he is best known — Charlemagne. 

Gharlemagne's long reign, of nearly half a century was well filled 
with military campaigns and conquests by which he so extended the 
boundaries of his dominions that they came to embrace the greater 
part of western Europe. But his most noteworthy work was achieved 
not as a warrior, but as a wise ruler and administrator. He gave 
personal attention to matters of every kind, public and private ; kept 
a fatherly watch over the affairs of the Church ; and established in 
connection with the cathedrals and monasteries numerous schools, 
which mark the beginning of a new intellectual life for Western 
Christendom. 

257. Restoration of the Empire in the West (800 a.d.). The great 
historical event of Charles's reign was the conferring upon him by 
the Pope of the imperial crown of the Caesars. The circumstances 
of this famous transaction were these. 

Pope Leo III having called upon Charlemagne for aid against a 
hostile faction at Rome, the king soon appeared in person at the 
capital and punished summarily the disturbers of the peace of the 
Church. The gratitude of Leo led him at this time to make a most 
signal return for the many services of the Frankish king. To under- 
stand his act a word of explanation is needed. 

For a considerable time a variety of circumstances had been 
fostering a growing feeling of enmity between the Italians and the 
emperors at Constantinople. Just at this time, by the crime of the 
Empress Irene, who had deposed her son (Constantine VI) and put 
out his eyes that she might have his place, the Byzantine throne 
was vacant, in the estimation of the Italians, who contended that 
the crown of the Caesars could not be worn by a woman. In view 
of these circumstances Pope Leo and those about him conceived 
the purpose of taking away from the heretical and effeminate Greeks 
the imperial crown and bestowing it upon some strong and orthodox 
and worthy prince in the West. 



§257] CHARLEMAGNE BECOMES EMPEROR 225 

Now, among all the Teutonic chiefs of Western Christendom 
there was none who could dispute in claims to the honor with the 
king of the Franks, the representative of a most illustrious house 
and the strongest champion of the young Christianity of the West 
against her pagan foes. Accordingly, as Charles was participating 
in the solemnities of Christmas Day in the basilica of St. Peter 
at Rome, the Pope approached the kneeling king, and placing 
a crown of gold upon his head proclaimed him Emperor and 

AugUStUS (800 A.D.). 

The intention of Pope Leo was, by a sort of reversal of the act of 
Constantine the Great, to bring back from the East the seat of the 
imperial court ; but what he really accomplished was a restoration of 
the line of emperors in the West, which three hundred and twenty- 
four years before had been ended by Odoacer, when he dethroned 
Romulus Augustus (sect. 174). We say this was what he actually 
effected ; for the Greeks of the East, disregarding wholly what the 
Roman people and the Pope had done, maintained their line of 
emperors just as though nothing had occurred in Italy. So now 
from this time on for centuries there were, most of the time, two 
emperors, one in the East and another in the West, each claiming to 
be the rightful successor of Caesar Augustus. 1 

This revival of the Empire in the West was one of the most 
important matters in European history. It gave to the following 
centuries " a great political ideal," which was the counterpart of 
the religious ideal of a universal Church embodied in the Papacy, 
and which was to determine the character of large sections of 
mediaeval history. 



1 From this time on it will be proper for us to use the terms Western Empire and 
Eastern Empire. These names should not, however, be employed before this time, for 
the two parts of the old Roman Empire were simply administrative divisions of a single 
empire ; but we may properly enough speak of the Roman Empire in the West, and the 
Roman Empire in the East, or of the Western and Eastern emperors. What it is very 
essential to note is, that the restoration of the line of the Western emperors actually 
destroyed the unity of the old Empire, so that from this time on until the destruction of 
the Eastern Empire in 1453, there were, as we have said in the text, two rival emperors, 
each in theory having rightful suzerainty of the whole world, whereas the two (or more) 
emperors in Roman times were the co-rulers of a single and indivisible world empire. 
See Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire. 



226 RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE [§258 

Charlemagne reigned as emperor only fourteen years. He died 
814 a. d., and his empire soon afterwards fell in pieces. It was 
renewed, however, by Otto the Great of Germany in the year 962 
and came to be known as the Holy Roman Empire. 

258. The Revival of the Empire as a Dividing Line in History. 
As Pope Leo placed the imperial diadem upon the head of Charles 
in St. Peter's basilica he cried, " To Charles the Augustus, crowned 
by God, great and pacific emperor, life and victory." The Roman 
populace within the church repeated the cry, which was taken up by 
the Frankish warriors outside. " In that shout was pronounced the 
union, so long in preparation, so mighty in its consequences, of the 
Roman and the Teuton, of the memories and the civilization of 
the South with the fresh energy of the North, and from that 
moment modern history begins." 1 

Selections from the Sources. Eginhard (Einhard), Life of the Emperor 
Karl the G7'eat (translation by William Glaister recommended). (Einhard was 
Charles' confidential friend and secretary. " Almost all our real, vivifying 
knowledge of Charles the Great," says Hodgkin, " is derived from Einhard, 
and . . . the Vita Caroli is one of the most precious bequests of the early 
Middle Ages.") Translations and Reprints (University of Pennsylvania), vol. vi, 
No. 5, " Selections from the Laws of Charles the Great." Robinson's Read- 
ings, vol. i, chap, vii ; Ogg's Soiirce Book of Mediaeval History, chap. ix. 

References (Modern). Hodgkin, Charles the Great, and Mombert, His- 
tory of Charles the Great (the first is the best short biography in English). 
Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, chaps, iv, v (gives a clear view of the import 
of the restoration of the Empire). Emerton, Lntrodtution to the Middle Ages, 
chaps, xir-xiv. Sergeant, The Franks, chaps, xvi-xxii (an admirable sketch, 
with a moderate appraisement of Charles's work). West, Alcuin and the Rise 
of the Christian Schools, and MuLLlNGER, The Schools of Charles the Great. 
Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages, chap. vii. Davis, Charlemagne. 
The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. ii, chaps, xviii, xix, xxi. 

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Charlemagne and his court: Davis, Charle- 
magne, chap. x. 2. Alcuin and the Palace School: West, Alcuin and the Rise 
of the Christian Schools, chap. iii. 3. The import of the restoration of the 
Empire: Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (8th ed.), chaps, iv, v, xxi (a subject 
for the advanced student). 

1 Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, p. 49. Bryce here uses the phrase modern 
history as comprehending both the mediaeval and the modern period. For the moment 
he conceives history as presenting only two phases, the ancient and the modern. 



GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(Containing the full titles of works referred to, arranged in groups alphabetically 
according to authors, with names of publishers and dates of issue. Well-known text- 
books are not included in the list.) 

Abbott, F. F., History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Ginn, 
Boston. 1901. 
Society and Politics in Ancient Rome. Scribner, New York. 191 2. 
The Common People of Ancient Rome. Scribner, New York. 191 6. 
Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages. Scribner, New York. 1894. 
The Growth of the French Nation. Macmillan, New York. 1902. 
European History. Macmillan, New York. 1899. 
Amir 'All, M. S., The Life and Teachings of Mohammed. Allen, London. 1895. 

O.p. 
Arnold, T., History of Rome. Appleton, New York. 1879. O.p. 
Arnold, W. T., The Roman System of Provincial Administration. Macmillan, 

London. 1879. O-P- 
Beesly, A. H., The Gracchi, Marius and Sulla. Longmans, London. 1893. 
Boissier, G., Cicero and his Friends. Putnam, New York. 

Rome and Pompeii. Putnam, New York. 1896. 
Bradley, H., The Goths. Putnam, New York. 1903. 

Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire. New ed. Macmillan, London. 1904. 
Bury, J. B., History of the Roman Empire. Murray, London, 1893. O-P- (New 
ed. in preparation.) 
Cambridge Medieval Hisloiy. Macmillan, New York. (Two volumes 

now (1916) ready.) 
History of the Later Roman Empire. Macmillan, London. 1889. 2 vols. 
The Student's Roman Empire. American Book Company, New York. 
Capes, W. W., Roman History : the Early Empire.- 8th ed. Longmans, Lon- 
don. 1891. 
The Roman Empire of the Second Century. Longmans, London. 1894. 
Carlyle, T., Heroes and Hero-worship. Scribner, New York. 
Carr, A., The Church and the Roman Empire. Longmans, London. 1887. 
Church, A. J., Roman Life in the Days of Cicero. Dodd, New York. 

The Story of Carthage. Putnam, New r York. 1895. 
Church, R. W., The Beginning of the Middle Ages. Scribner, New York. 1890. 
Coulanges, Fustel de, The Aricient City. Lee & Shepard, Boston. 1896. 
Cunningham, W., Western Civilization (Mediaeval and Modern Times). Cam- 
bridge [Fng.] University Press. 1900. 
Curteis, A. M., History of the Roman Empire, A.D. jgj-800. Rivingtons, Lon- 
don. 1875. 
Rise of the Macedonian Empire. 4th ed. Longmans, London. 1886. 
Davis, H. W. C, Charlemagne. Putnam, New York. 1900. 
Davis, W. S., The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome. Macmillan, New York. 

. I9I3- 
Dennis, G., Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. Murray, London. 1883. 

227 



228 GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Dill, S., Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire. 2d ed. 
Macmillan, London. 1899. 
Roman Society from Nero to St. Paul. Macmillan, London. 1904. 
Dodge, T. A., Ccesar. Houghton, Boston. 1892. 

Hannibal. Houghton, Boston. 1896. (Great Captains.) 
Duruy, J. V., History of Rome. Ed. by Mahaffy. Jewett Pub. Co., Boston. 

1896. 8 vols. O.p. 
Emerton, E., An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages. Girin, Boston. 

1888. 
Ferrero, G., The Greatness and Decline of Rome. Putnam, New York. 1909. 

5 vols. 
Firth, J. B., Augustus Ccesar. Putnam, New York. 1903. 

Constantine the Great. Putnam, New York. 1905. 
Fisher, G. P., History of the Christian Church. Scribner, New York. 1887. 
Fowler, H. N., A History of Ro7nan Literature. Appleton, New York. 1903. 
Fowler, W. W., The City-state of the Greeks and Romans. Macmillan, London. 
1893. 
fuhus Ccesar. Putnam, New York. 1892. 
Rome. Holt, New York. 191 2. 
Frank, T., Roman Imperialism. Macmillan, New York. 1914. 
Freeman, E. A., History of Federal Government in Greece and Italy. Ed. by 
J. B. Bury. 2d ed. Macmillan, London. 1893. O-P- 
History of Sicily. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1891-1894. 4 vols. 
History and Conquests of the Saracens. Henry & Parker, Oxford. 1877. 
The Story of Sicily. Putnam, New York. 1892. 
Friedlander, L., Roman Life and Manners. Routledge, London ; Dutton, 

New York. 4 vols. 
Froude, J. A., Ccesar. Scribner, New York. 1900. 

Gardner, K., fulian, Philosopher and Emperor. Putnam, New York. 1906. 
Gibbon, E., The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Ed. by 

J. B. Bury. Methuen, London. 1896-1900. 7 vols. 
Gibbons, J. (Cardinal), The Faith of our Fathers ■. Murphy, Baltimore. 1888. • 
Gilman, A., The Story of Rome. Putnam, New York. 1896. 
The Story of the Saracens. Putnam, New York. 1896. 
Granrud, J. E., Roman Constitutional History. Allyn, Boston. 1901. 
Greenidge, A. H. J., Roman Public Life. Macmillan, London. 1901. 

A History of Rome (vol. i). Dutton, New York. 1905. 
Gummere, F. B., Germanic Origins. Scribner, New York. 1892. 
Gwatkin, H. M., The Arian Controversy . Longmans, London. 1898. 
Hadley, J., Introduction to Roman Law. Appleton, New York. 1873. 
Hardy, E. G., Christianity and the Roman Govern?nent. Longmans, London. 

1894. 
Harrison, F., Byzantine History in the Early Middle Ages. Macmillan, Lon- 
don. 1900. 
Havell, H. L., Republican Rome. Stokes, New York. 1914. 
Heitland, W. E., The Roman Republic. Cambridge [Eng.] University Press. 

1909. 3 vols. 
Hodgkin, T., Charles the Great. Macmillan, London. 1897. 

Italy and her Invaders. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1880-1899. 8 vols. 
Theodoric the Goth. Putnam, New York. 1900. 
Holmes, R., Ccesar's Conquest of Gaul. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 191 1. 
How, W. W., and Leigh, H. D., History of Rome. Longmans, London. 1898. 
Ihne, W., Early Rome. 6th ed. Longmans, London. 1900. 

History of Rome. Longmans, London. 1871-1882. 5 vols. O.p. 



GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 229 



Inge, W. R., Society in Rome tinder the Ccesars. Scribner, New York. 

Irving, W., Mahomet and his Successors. Putnam, New- York. 1868, 1869. 

2 vols. 
Johnston, H. W., The Private Life of the Romans. Scott, Chicago. 1903. 
Jones, H. S., The Roman Empire. Putnam, New York. 1908. 
Kingsley, C, The Hermits. Macmillan, London. 1868. 
Lanciani, R., Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries. Houghton, 

Boston. 1892. 
Pagan and Christian Rome. Houghton, Boston. 1899. 
Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome. Houghton, Boston. 1897. 
Lea, H. C, Superstition and Force. 4th ed. Lea, Philadelphia. 1892. 
Lecky, W. E. H., A History of European Morals. Appleton, New York. 1870. 
Leland, C. G., Etruscan- Roman Remains in Popular Tradition. Unwin, London. 

1892. O.p. 
Long, G., The Decline of the Roman Republic. Bell, London. 1864-1874. 

5 vols. O.p. 
Macaulay, T. B., Lays of Ancient Rome. Houghton, Boston. 1895. 
Mackail, J. W., Latin Literature. Scribner, New York. 1900. 
Mahan, A. T., The Lnfluence of Sea Power upon History. Little, Boston. 
Margoliouth, D. S., Mohammed and the Rise of Lslam. Putnam, New York. 1905. 
Mason, A. J., The Perseciition of Diocletian. Deighton, Cambridge. 1876. O.p. 
Mau, A., Pompeii: its Life and Art. Macmillan, New York. 1902. 
Merivale, C, The Fall of the Roman Republic. Longmans, London. 1853. 
The Continental Teutons. Soc. Prom. Chr. Knowl., London. 
A History of the Romans under the Empire. Longmans, New York. 

1862-1865. 8 vols. 
Mierow, C. C, The Gothic History of fordanes. Princeton University Press. 

I 9 I 5- 
Mombert, J. I., A History of Charles the Great. Appleton, New York. 1888. 

Mommsen, T., History of Rome. Scribner, New York. 1901. 5 vols. 

The Prov'inces of the Roman Empire from Ccesar to Diocletian. Scribner, 
New York. 1887. 2 vols. 
Montalembert, Count de, The Monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Ber- 
nard. Longmans, New York. 1896. 6 vols. 
Morey, Wm. C, Outlines of Roman Law. Putnam, New York. 1884. 
Morris, W. O., Hannibal. Putnam, New York. 1897. 
Muir, Sir W., The Life of Mahomet. Smith, Elder & Co., London. 1894. 
Annals of the Early Caliphate. Smith, Elder & Co., London. 1888. 
The Cordn. Soc. Prom. Chr. Knowl., London. 1878. 
The Rise and Decline of Lslam. Relig. Tract Soc, London. 1883. 
Mullinger, J. B., The Schools of Charles the Great. Stechert, New York. 1877. 
Newman, J. H., The Arians of the Fourth Century. Lumley, London. 1854. 
Oman, C, Seven Roman Statesmen of the Later Republic. Arnold, London. 1902. 

The Byzantine Empire. Putnam, New York. 1898. 
Pelham, H. F., Outlines of Roman History. Putnam, New York. 1893. 
Poole, S. L., Studies in a Mosque. Allen, London. 1883. 
Preston, H. W., and Dodge, L., The Private Life of the Romans. Leach, 

Boston. 1893. 
Putnam, G. H., Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages. Putnam, New 

York. 1896, 1897. 2 vols. 
Ramsay, W. M., The Church in the Roman Empire before A.D. ijo. Hodder, 

London. 1893. 
Reid, J. S., The Municipalities of the Roman Empire. Cambridge [Eng.] Uni- 
versity Press. 1913. 



230 GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Robinson, J. H., and Breasted, J. H., Outlines of European History (pt. i). 

Ginn, Boston. 1914. 
Seeley, J. R., Roman Imperialism. Roberts, Boston. 1871. O.p. 
Seignobos, C, History of the Roman People. Ed. by Fairly. .Holt, New York. 

1902. 
History of Ancient Civilization. Scribner, New York. 1906. 
History of Mediaeval and Modern Civilization. Trans, by James. Scribner, 

New York. 1909. 
Sellar, W. Y., The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. Clarendon Press, 

Oxford. 2 vols. 
The Roman Poets of the Repiiblic. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1889. 
Sergeant, L., The Franks. Putnam, New York. 1898. 
Shuckburgh, E. S., History of Rome. Macmillan, New York. 1894. 
Smith, R. B., Mohammed and Mohammedanism. Harper, New York. 1875. O.p. 
Carthage and the Carthaginians. Longmans, London. 1879. 
Rome and Carthage. 8th ed. Longmans, London. 1893. 
Sprenger, A., The Life of Mohammed. Allahabad. 1851. 
Stanley, A. P., Christian Institutions. Murray, London. 1881. 

Lectures 011 the History of the Eastern Church. Scribner, New York. 1862. 
Strachan-Davidson, J. L., Cicero and the Fall of the Ro?nau Republic. Putnam, 

New York. 1894. 
Thierry, Amedee, Tableau de V Empire Romain. Didier, Paris. 1862. O.p. 
Thomas, E., Roman Life under the C&sars. Unwin, London. 1899. 
Tighe, A., Development of the Roman Constitution. Appleton, New York. 1886. 
Trollope, A., The Life of Cicero. Harper, New York. 1881. 2 vols. O.p. 
Tucker, T. G., Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul. Macmillan, 

New York. 191 1. 
Uhlhorn, G., The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. Scribner, New York. 
Watson, P. B., Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Plarper, New York. 1884. 
West, A. F., Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools. Scribner, New York. 
Wilkins, A. S., Roman Antiquities. American Book Company, New York. 
Wishart, A. W., A Short History of Monks and Monasteries. Brandt, Trenton. 
Wright, W.,^;? Account of Palmyra and Zenobia. Nelson, New York. 1895. O.p. 
Zimmer, H., The Irish Element in Mediaeval Culture. Putnam, New York. 1891. 



SOURCES 

(Most of the primary works to which we have made reference are to be found in the 
Bohn Library, Harper's Classical Library, or the Loeb Classical Library. We name here 
by way of special recommendation editions of a few of the most important translations, 
together with several valuable collections of translations and extracts.) 

Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. Trans, by Long. Lee & Shepard, 

Boston. 
Appian, The Foreign Wars and The Civil Wars. Loeb Classical Library. 4 vols. 
Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander. Trans, by Chinnock. Bell, London. 1893. 
Cassiodorus, Letters. Trans, by Hodgkin. Frowde, London. 1886. 
Cicero, Letters to Atticits. Macmillan, New York. 1912. 3 vols. 
Davis, W. S., Readings in Ancient History. Allyn, Boston. 1912. 2 vols. 
Dillard, D. H., Fifty Letters of Cicero. Ginn, Boston. 1901. 
Eginhard, Life of the Emperor Karl the Great. Trans, by Glaister. Bell, London. 

1877. 
Extracts from the Sources. Department of History of Indiana University. 
Henderson, E. F., Select Historical Documents. Bell, London. 1892. 



GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 231 

Jordanes, Origin and Deeds of the Goths. Trans, by Mierow. Princeton Uni- 
versity Press. 

Koran \Qur'ari\. Trans, by Palmer. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1880. 2 vols. 

Livy. Trans, by Spillan and others. Bell, London. 1900-1903. 4 vols. 

Monroe, P. N., Source Book of the History of Education for the Greek and Roman 
Period. Macmillan, New York. 1901. 

Munro, D. C, Source Book of Roman History. Heath, Boston. 1904. 

Ogg, F. A., Source Book of Mediceval History. American Book Company, New- 
York. 1907. 

Plutarch, Lives. Trans, by Stewart and Long. Bell, London. 1880-1882. 4 vols. 

Polybius, Histories. Trans, by Shuckburgh. Macmillan, London: 1889. 2 vols. 

Robinson, J. H., Readings in European History. Ginn, Boston. 1904,1906. 2 vols. 

St. Augustine, The City of God. Trans, by Dods. Clark, Edinburgh. 1888. 2 vols. 

Tacitus, Works. Oxford translation. Bell, London. 1886, 1887. 2 vols. 

Translations and Reprints. Department of History of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. 



INDEX 



AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 



Note. In the case of words whose correct pronunciation has not seemed 
to be clearly indicated by their accentuation and syllabication, the sounds of 
the letters have been denoted thus : a, like a in gray ; a, like a, only less pro- 
longed; a, like a in have; a, like a in far; a, like a in all; e, like ee in meet ; 
e, like e, only less prolonged ; e, like e in end; e, like e in there ; e, like e in err; 
1, like 2' in pine ; 1, like 2 in /z>z ; 0, like in note ; 6, like 5, only less prolonged ; 
6, like o in //# ; 6, like in drb ; 00, like <?# in nioon ; 06, like 00 in /^ ; 
u, like 71 in ?7jt ; ii, like the French ti ; ce and ce have the same sound that e would 
have in the same position ; e and eh, like k ; 9, like s ; g, like g in get ; g, like 
j; s, like 2 ; ch, as in German ach ; g (small capital) as in German Hamburg; 
fi, like ni in minion ; h denotes the nasal sound in French, being similar to 
ng in song. 



Abu-Bekr (a'boo-bek'r), caliph, 218 

n. 1 
A ehae'a, Roman province, 64 n. 1 
Achaean League, hostages in Italy, 

63, 64 ; war with Rome, 63 
Actium (ak'shi um), battle of, 103 
Ad ri an 5'ple, battle near (378 a.d.), 

151 

^Egatian (e ga'shan) Islands, naval 

battle near, 52 
JE ne'as, 21 
^E'qui ans, early enemies of Rome, 

27 
Aetius (ae'shius), Roman general, 
_I59 n. 1 

A'ger pub'li cus. See Public lands 
Agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus, 

74 
A gric'o la in Britain, 123 
Ag rip pi'na, 119 
Al'a ric, his first invasion of Italy, 1 53 ; 

wrings ransom from Rome, 155; 

sacks Rome, 155; his death, 156 
Alba Longa, 6, 38 
Al e man'ni, 197 
Ali (a'le), caliph, 218 n. 1 
AHi a, battle of the, 34 
Ambrose, bishop, 152 



Amphitheaters, spectacles of, ar- 
ranged by Augustus, 112; the Fla- 
vian, 169; shows of, 184-186 

Ancestor worship among the Romans, 
8 

Ancus Martius (an'cus mar'shius), 
king of Rome, 17 

Andalusia (an da lob^shi a), origin of 
the name, 157 

Angles. See Anglo-Saxons 

Anglo-Saxons, invade Britain as set- 
tlers, 158 ; the "Heptarchy," 194; 
their conversion, 198 

Antfoehus III (the Great), king of 
Syria, 62 

An to m'nus Pi'us, Roman emperor, 
129 

Antony, Mark, the triumvir, delivers 
funeral oration over Caesar's body, 
101 ; opposed by Octavius, 101 ; 
enters the Second Triumvirate, 102 ; 
his revels with Cleopatra, 103 ; at 
the battle of Actium, 103, 104; his 
death, 104 

Ap'en nines, the, 2 

Appian Way. See Via 

Appius Claudius. See Claudius 

A pu'li a, 1 



233 



234 



INDEX 



A'quae Sex'ti ae, battle of, 79 n. 1 

Aqueducts, Roman, 171 

Aquileia (ak wi le'ya), 131 

Arabia Pe trae'a, Roman province, 127 

^ and note 

Ar'abs. See Mohammedanism 

Ar ca'di us, Roman emperor of the 
East, 152 

Architecture, Roman, 167 

A'ri an ism, 146, 197 

A rim'i num, Latin colony, 170 n. 1 

Ari'us, 146 n. 2 

Ar min'i us defeats Varus at the 
Teutoburg Wood, no 

Army, Roman, the, before Servian 
reforms, iS; after Servian re- 
forms, 19 

Ar'no, river, 3 

Ar'nus. See Arno 

Ar pi'num, 39 

Asia, Roman province of, 82, 83 

Athanasius (ath a na/shi us), 146 n. 2 

At'ta lus III, king of Pergamum, 
bequeaths his kingdom to the 
Roman people, 82 

Atticus Herodes (at'i kus hero'dez), 

133 

At'ti la, leader of the Huns, his de- 
feat at Chalons, 159 ; invades Italy, 
159; his death, 160 

Augur, birds of, 51 

Augurs, College of, 15 

Augustus Caesar. See Octavian 

Aurelian, emperor, 136, 137; con- 
structs new wall around Rome, 
137 n. 1 

Au re'li us, Marcus, Roman emperor, 
reign, 130-132; his Meditations, 
179 

Aus'pi ces, taking of the, 15; taken 
by means of sacred fowls, 51 

Barbarians, German, movements in 
the last century of the Roman Em- 
pire, 150-165; the' so-called barba- 
rian kingdoms, 191-195; conversion, 
196-199; fusion with Latins, 207- 
211 ; their codes, 209 

Barca. See Hamilcar 

Barrack emperors, the, 134 

Baths. See Thermae 

Bel i sa'ri us, commander, 212 

Ben e ven'tum, battle of, 42 

Bithynia (bi thin'i a), 82 n. 2 



Brennus, Gallic leader, 35 

Britain, invaded by Caesar, 94 ; con- 
quest of, in reign of Claudius, 119; 
Angles and Saxons settle in, 158 

Brut'ti um, 1 

Brutus, Marcus, 100 

Burgundians establish kingdom in 
southeastern Gaul, 157 

Burrhus, 120 

Bu sen ti'nus, river, 156 

Byzantium (bi zan'shi urn). ^'^Con- 
stantinople 

Cae're, gives asylum to Roman ves- 
tals, 34 ; made a municipium, 38 
^aer'i tan rights, 37 n. 2 
Caesar, Augustus. See Octavian 
Caesar, Gaius. See Caligula 
Caesar, Gaius Julius, in the Sullan 
proscription, 86; in the First 
Triumvirate, 93 ; consul, 94 ; 
assigned as proconsul to Gallic 
provinces, 94 ; campaigns in Gaul, 
94 ; invades Britain, 94 ; results of 
his Gallic wars, 95 ; rivalry with 
Pompey, 96 ; crosses the Rubicon, 
97 ; civil war between him and 
Pompey, 97 ; defeats Pharnaces, 
97 ; as an uncrowned king, 98 ; as 
a statesman, 98 ■, his assassination, 
100; his literary works, 178 
Caesarion (se za're on), 103 
Cairo (ki'ro), university at, 221 
Ca la'bri a, 1 
Calendar, Julian, 99; Gregorian, 

99 n. 2 
Ca lig'u la, Roman emperor, 1 18 
Ca'liphs, 218 n. 1 ; dismemberment 

of the caliphate, 219 
Ca mirius. See Furius 
Campagna (kam pan'ya), 17.1 
Campus Martius(kam / pus mar'shius), 

20 
Can'nae, battle of, 58 ; events after, 

5 8 
Can u le'i us, Gaius, tribune, 32 

Cap'itohne Hill, 14 

Ca'pre ae, island, 117 

Cap'u a, revolts from Rome, 58 ; 

Hannibal's winter quarters, 58 n. 1 ; 

fall of, 59 
Car a cal'la, Roman emperor, reign, 

135 
Carloman, king of the Franks, 223 n. 2 



INDEX 



235 



Carthage, empire of, 46 ; govern- 
ment, 46 ; compared with Rome, 
46-48 ; navy, at beginning of Punic 
wars, 46 ; Truceless War, 54 ; pros- 
perous condition just before Third 
Punic War, 67 ; destruction, 68 

Carthaginians, their empire in Spain, 
54 ; unpromising character of their 
civilization, 69 

Cas si o d5'rus, 192 n. 1 

Cas'si us, Gaius, conspirator, 100; 
his death, 103 

Caste, growth of, in PvOman Empire, 1 4 1 

Catacombs, 143 

Cat i lima, Lu'cius Ser'gi us, con- 
spiracy of, 92 

Catiline. See Catilina 

Cato, Marcus Porcius (the Censor), 
65 ; counsels the destruction of 
Carthage, 67 

Cato, Marcus Porcius (por'shi us) (the 
Younger), his suicide, 97 

Ca tul'lus, poet, 175 

Cat'u lus, C. Lutatius, consul, 52 

Celt i be'ri ans, 208 

Censors, creation of office, 33 ; 
functions and duties, 33 

Century, unit of Roman military 
organization, 19 

Chalons (sha Ion'), battle of, 158 

Charlemagne (shar'le man), acces- 
sion, 223 ; wars, 224 ; restores the 
Empire in the West, 224 

Charles Martel, 219 

ChlSdwig. See Clovis 

Christ, birth, 114; crucifixion, 117 

Christianity, first preached, 117; 
gains adherents from the higher 
classes, 124; under Trajan, 127; 
martial spirit enters the Church, 
144 ; made in effect state religion 
by Constantine, 145; effects upon, 
of imperial patronage, 146; one of 
the most vital elements in the 
Roman Empire, 150; heresy and 
idolatry suppressed by Theodosius 
and Gratian, 151 ; represents a new 
moral force, 152 ; influence in sup- 
pressing the gladiatorial combats, 
154; among the German races, 196- 
199; reaction upon, of Teutonic 
barbarism, 199. See Christians 

Christians, the persecution of, under 
Nero, 120; under Domitian, 124; 



under Marcus Aurelius, 131 ; mo- 
tives of persecutions, 131 ; per- 
secutions under Diocletian, 133; 
status under Julian, 148 

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, his prosecu- 
tion of Verres, 89 ; First Oration 
against Catiline, 92 ; his death, 
102 ; his letters, 177 ; as an orator, 
221 

(^im'bn, the, 78 

Cin cin na/tus, legend of, 27 

Cinna. See Cornelius 

Circus, games of the, 16 

Ci-Zcus Max'imus, description, 169 

Citizenship, Roman, privileges of, 
11; rights bestowed in install- 
ments, 1 1 ; Gaius Gracchus pro- 
poses that Latins be made citizens, 
76; demanded by the Italians, 
80 ; secured by Italians as result 
of the Social War, 80 ; Caesar's lib- 
erality in conferring, upon provin- 
cials, 99 ; conferred by Caracalla 
upon all free inhabitants of the 
Empire, 136 

City-state, Rome as a, 10 

Clan. See Gens 

Claudius, Roman emperor, reign, 118; 
admits Gallic nobility to Roman 
Senate, 118; conquest of Britain, 

IT 9. 

Claudius, Appius, decemvir, 30 

Claudius, Appius (C_ ae'eus), 42 

Claudius, Publius, consul, 51 

Cleopatra, Caesar secures for her the 
throne of Egypt, 97 ; meets Mark 
Antony, 103 ; at the battle of Ac- 
tium, 104; her death, 104 

Clients, dependents of the Roman 
family, 9 

Clo ti'ca Max' i ma, 17 

Clovis, king of the Franks, 193 ; his 
conversion, 197 

Code, the, of Justinian, 181, 212 

Ccele-Syria (se'le-siir'i a), 91 

Colline Gate, battle at, 86 n. 1 

Co 15ml, 142 n. 1 

Colonies, Latin, why so called, 44 ; 
rights of colonists, 44 ; status of 
settlers in, compared to that of set- 
tlers in a territory of the United 
States, 44 ; number of, at time of 
Second Punic War, 45; influence 
of, in spreading Roman culture, 45 



236 



INDEX 



Colonies, Roman, rights and privi- 
leges, 43 

Col os se'um, 122, 169 

Comitia (ko mish'i a) centuriata, out- 
growth of Servian reforms, 20 

Comitia curiata, 1 1 ; a nonrepresent- 
ative body, 1 1 

Comitia tributa, 26 n. 2 

Comiiium (ko mish'i um), the, 18 

Com merciu m . See Jus 

Com'mo dus, Roman emperor, reign, 

134 

Co nnitbi u m . See Ju s 

Constantine the Great, reign, 144- 
148; defeats Maxentius at the Mil- 
vian Bridge, 144; makes the cross 
his standard, 144; grants tolera- 
tion to Christians, 145; recognizes 
the Sabbath as a day of rest, 146; 
summons Council of Nicaea, 146; 
founds Constantinople, 147 

Constantine VI, 224 

Constantinople, founded, 147 ; be- 
sieged by the Saracens, 218 

Consuls, first chosen, 24 ; original 
powers, 24 ; immunity from prose- 
cution, 24 ; authority restricted by 
the Lex Valeria, 25; term of office 
shortened, 108 n. 1 

Cor'dS v'a, 221 

Cor fin'i um, 80 

Corinth destroyed by the Romans, 
400 

Corn, free distribution of, at Rome, 
76, 18; . 

Cor ne'li a, mother of the Gracchi, 

74, 77 
Cornelius Cinna, Lucius, consul, 

85 
Co7 / ptcs Ju'ris Ctvi'lis, 181 
Corsica, 53 

Crassus, Marcus Licinius, defeats 
the gladiators, 88 n. 1 ; his great 
wealth, 93 ; enters the First Trium- 
virate, 94 ; his Parthian campaign, 
136; his death, 136 
Cre mo'na, Roman colony, 54 
Curia (ku'ria), 10; number of curias 

in early Rome, 10 
Cu ri ales, 141 
Curiatii (kii ri a'shi T), 22 
C, yn os ceph'a lae, battle of, 62 
Qy re'ne, bequeathed to Rome, 82 
n. 2 



Dacia reduced to a province by 
Trajan, 126 - 

De cem'virs, first board, 28-30 ; 
second, 30 ; their misrule and 
overthrow, 30 

De la'tors, 116 

Den ta/tus, Manius Curius, 66 

Dictator, his powers, 24 ; how nomi- 
nated, 24 ; term first made in- 
definite in Sulla's case, 87 

Dioceses (dro se sez), 141 n. 1 

Di o cle'tian, Roman emperor, reign, 
139-143 ; persecution of the Chris- 
tians, 143 

Domitian, Roman emperor, reign, 123 

Dom i til'la, 124 

Dru'sus, Marcus Livius, tribune, 
80 n. 2 

Du il'i us, Gaius, consul, gains victory 
at Mylae, 49, 50 

Education, Roman, 182 

Egbert, king of Wessex, 195 

Egypt, under the Romans, 104 ; con- 
quered by the Arabs, 218 

Ep ic te'tus, the Stoic, 179 

Equites (ek'witez), 412 n. 1 

E tru'ri a, location, 1 ; southern part 

_ Romanized, 33, 34 

E trus'cans, their early civilization, 
4 ; decline of their power, 34 

Fabius Maximus ("the Delayer"), 55, 

57 

Family, the Roman, 8 ; its place in 
Roman history, 9 

Fasces (faVez), the, 24 

Festivals. See Sacred games 

Fetiales. See Heralds 

Flam'ines, 16 n. 1 

Flaminian Way. See Via 

Flam i nrmus, Roman general, 62 

Flavian Age, 121 

Forum, the Roman, in time of the 
kings, 18 

Franks, the, form first settlement in 
Gaul, 157; under the Merovingians, 
193; their conversion, 197; impor- 
tance of this event, 197 

Furius Camillus, Marcus, dictator, 
ransoms Rome with steel, 35 

Ga/bi 1, 38 n. 1 

Gaius (ga'yus), jurist, 181 



INDEX 



237 



Gaius Caesar. See Caligula 

Gal'li a Cis al pi'na, geographical situ- 
ation, 1 ; origin of name, 1 

Gaul, conquest of, by Caesar, 94 ; 
results of the Gallic wars, 95 ; 
Romanization of, 95. See Gauls 

Gauls, early settlement in North Italy, 
1 ; sack Rome, 34 ; victory over the 
Romans near the Allia, 34 ; Rome's 
war with, between First and Second 
Punic wars, 53 

Geiseric (gi'zer ik), Vandal leader, 160 

Gens (clan), hi early Rome, 10 

Gen'ser ic. See Geiseric 

Germans. See Barbarians 

Gladiatorial combats, given by Augus- 
tus, 112; their suppression, 154; 
attitude of Christians towards, 154 ; 
general description of the shows, 
184-186 

Gladiators, War of the, 87 

Goths, Eastern. See Ostrogoths 

Goths, Western. See Visigoths 

Grac'chus, Gaius, 75-77 

Gracchus, Tiberius, 74-75 

Gregory II, Pope, 205 

Guadalquivir (gwa dal ke veV), river, 
220 

Hadrian, emperor, reign, 127-129 

Hadrian Wall in Britain, 128 

Ha miFcar Barca, Carthaginian gen- 
eral, 54 

Hannibal, as a youth, 55; attacks 
Saguntum,55; marches from Spain, 
56; passage of the Alps, 56; in 
Italy, 57-60 ; his death, 60 n. 1 

Ha ruVpi ces, art of the, 14 

Has'dru bal, brother of Hannibal, in 
Spain, 59 ; at the Metaurus, 59 

Hasdrubal, son-in-law of Hamilcar, 
60 

Hegira (he ji'ra), the, 216 

Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon, 194 

Her a cle'a, battle of, 42 

Heralds, College of, 15 

Her cu la'ne um, 123 

Hermann. See Arminius 

Hermits, 200 

Herodes, Atticus. See Atticus He- 
rodes 

Hl'e ro II, tyrant of Syracuse, 49 

H5 no'ri us, Roman emperor, 152; 
suppresses gladiatorial games, 154 



Horace, poet, 176 

Horatii (hd ra/shil), 22 

Horatius, Marcus, consul, 31 

Horatius Codes (ko'klez), 22 

Hortensian Law, 36 n. 2 

Hortensius (horten'shi us), jurist, 

177 
Hos tin us, Tullus, king of Rome, 17 
Huns, drive Goths across the Danube, 

150; defeated at Chalons, 158 

Iconoclasts, War of the, 205 
Illyrian corsairs punished by Rome, 

89, 90 
Imperator, the title, 107 
I 5'na, monastery, 198 
Irene (Iren'), empress, 224 
Is'lam. See Mohammedanism 
Italian allies, status before the Social 

War, 113. See Social War 
Italians, branches of, 4 
I tari ca. See Corfinium 
Italy, divisions, 1 ; mountain system, 

2 ; rivers, 3 ; its early inhabitants, 

3 ; united under Rome, 43 

Ja nic'ulum, 22 

JaVnus, Roman deity, 14; doors of 
temple closed in reign of Augustus, 
no 

Jerusalem, taken by Pompey, 91 ; 
taken by Titus, 122 

Jews, revolt of, in reign of the em- 
peror Hadrian, 129. See Jerusa- 
lem 

Jovian, Roman emperor, 148 

Ju gur'tha, war with Rome, 77 

Julian the Apostate, reign, 148 

Ju li a/nus, Did'i us, 135 

Jupiter, 13 

Jus, auxilii, of the plebeian tribune, 
27 ; connnercii, defined, 1 1 ; con- 
nubii, defined, n ; honorum, de- 
fined, 1 1 ; provocations, defined, 
11; suffragii, defined, n; enjoyed 
by plebeians in early Rome, 12; 
imaginum, defined, 32 

Justin Martyr, 31 

Justinian, Eastern emperor, his code, 
181; era of, 212; reign, 212-213 

Juvenal, satirist, 177 

Kaaba (ka'ba), 215 

Koran (ko'ran or ko ran'), the, 217 



2 3 8 



INDEX 



Lab' a rum, the, 144 n. 2 

La/res, cult of, prohibited, 151 

Latin colonies. See Colonies 

Latin League, in earliest times, 6 ; in 
340 B. c, 39. See Latins 

Latins, ethnic relationship, 5 ; revolt 
of Latin towns in 340 B.C., 39; how 
treated by Rome after the Latin 
War, 40 

Latium (la'shlum), 1; before the 
rise of Rome, 6 

La vin'i um, 2 1 

Legion, Roman, its normal strength 
and tactical formation in early- 
times, 19 

Leo the Great, Pope, turns Attila 
back, 159; intercedes for Rome 
with Geiseric, 160 

Leo the Isaurian, Eastern emperor, 
205 

Leo III, Pope, 224, 225 

Lepidus, Marcus iEmilius, the trium- 
vir, 101, 102, 103 

Lex Julia Municipalis, 99 n. I 

Li cin'i an Laws, 35 

Lictors, attendants of the Roman 
king, 10 ; consular, 24 

Li gu'ri a, 1 

Literature, Roman, 174-182 

Little St. Ber nard', pass, 66 

Livy, historian, 178 

Lombards, enter Italy, 194 ; king 
receives " Iron Crown " from the 
Pope, 194; kingdom destroyed by 
Charles the Great, 194 ; conse- 
quence of their conquest of Italy, 
194 

Lu ca'ni a, 1 

Lucretius (lu cre'shi us), poet, 175 

Lu cul'lus, Lucius Licinius, 91 n. 1 

Lusitanians, 70 

Luxury, Roman, 186 

Mac e dS'ni an War, First, 62 n. 1 ; 

Second, 62 ; Third, 63 
Mae ce'nas, patron of literature, 1 1 1 
Magna Graecia, 2 
Magnesia (mag ne'shl a), battle of, 

63 
Ma'go, brother of Hannibal, 58 

Manlius, Titus, consul, opposes de- 
mands of the Latins, 39 

Mar cel'lus, Marcus Claudius, Roman 
general, 59 



Mar co man'm, the, 131 

Ma'ri us, Gaius, in Jugurthine War, 
78 ; destroys the Cimbri and Teu- 
tons, 78 ; contends with Sulla for 
command against Mithradates, 84 ; 
is proscribed, 85 ; massacres the 
aristocrats, 85 

Mars, Roman god of war, 14 

Marsic War. See Social War 

Martial, poet, 177 n. 1 

Mas i nis'sa, 67 

Maxim'ian, Roman emperor, 140, 

143 

Mecca, 215 

Medina (ma de'na), 217 

Merovingians, Frankish kings, 193 

Metaurus, battle of the, 59 ; a turn- 
ing point in history, 69 

Milvian Bridge, battle at, 144 

Mith ra da'tes VI (the Great), king 
of Pontus, 82 ; his characteristics, 
83 ; orders massacre of Italians 
in Asia, 84 ; invades Europe, 84 ; 
his death, 91 

Mithradatic War, First, 85 n. 2 ; Sec- 
ond, 91 n. 1 ; Third, 91 n. 1 

Mohammed, 215-217 

Mohammedanism, its teachings, 217 ; 
conquests of Saracens, 218, 219; 
dismemberment of caliphate, 219; 
civilization of Arabian Islam, 220 

Monasticism, 199-202 

Monte Cassino (mon'ta kas se'no), 
200 

Mucius Scaevola (sev'Sla), 23 

Mulvian Bridge. See Milvian Bridge 

Mun'da, battle of, 98 n. 1. 

Municipal system, Roman, 37-39 ; 
the Lex Julia Municipalis, 99 n. I. 
See Mtinicipia 

Mu ni cip'i a, meaning and use of 
the term, 38 ; lose self-government 
under later emperors, 141, 163 

My'lae, naval battle near, 49 

Naples, 3 

Narb5 nen'sis, Gothic province, 78 

Nero, Roman emperor, reign, 119, 

120 
Nerva, Roman emperor, 125 
Ni cse'a, Church council at, 146 
A T o men eld' tor, 187 
Numantia (nu man'shi a), destruction 

of, 70 



INDEX 



239 



Octavian, Gaius, opposes Antony, 
101 ; enters the Second Trium- 
virate, 102 ; at the battle of Ac- 
tium, 103, 104; character of his 
government, 106; his reign, 106- 
114; reforms the administration of 
the provinces, 109; literature and 
the arts during his reign, no; his 
death and deification, 113 

Octavius. See Octavian 

Octavius, Gnaeus, consul, 85 

Octavius, M., tribune, 75 

O d5 a/eer, 161, 191 

Omar, caliph, 218 n. 1 

Oratory, Roman, 177 

Ordeals, 209 

Os'tro goths, cross the Danube, 151 ; 
reduced to obedience by Theodo- 
sius, 151 ; in Italy, 191 

Othman, caliph, 218 n. 1 

O'tho, Roman emperor, 121 

Otto I (the Great), 226 

Ov'id, poet, 176 

Palmyra, fall of, 137 
Pantheon, the, 169 
Papacy, rise of, 202—206 
Pa pin'i an, jurist, 181 
Pa ter fa mil'i as, power of, 8 
Patricians in early Rome, 12 
Pau'lus, jurist, 181 

PauTus, Lu'cius JE mil'i us, consul, 57 
Paulus, Lucius ./Emilius, son of pre- 
ceding, victor at Pydna, 63 
Pax Romana. See Roman Peace 
Pe na/tes, worship of, interdicted, 151 
Perseus(per / sus),kingofMacedonia,63 
Persius (per'shius), poet, 177 
Pe'tra, 127 n. 1 

Phar'na ees, defeated by Caesar, 97 
Phar sa'lus, battle of, 97 
Pi ce'num, 1 

Picts ravage province of Britain, 1 58 

Pippin III, becomes king of the 

Franks, 222 ; makes donation of 

lands to the Pope, 223 

Pirates, in the Mediterranean, 89 ; 

punished by Pompey, 90 
Pistoria (pis to'ri a), 93 
Placentia (pla sen'shi a), Roman col- 
ony, 54 
Plautus (plo'tus), dramatist, 175 
Plebeians (pie be'yanz), origin of the 
order, 12 n. 1 ; their status in early 



Rome, 12; first secession, 26; 
second secession, 31 ; marriage 
with patricians made legal, 32 ; 
secure admission to the consulship, 
35, 36; to the dictatorship and 
other offices, 36 n. 1 

Pleb is ci'ta, 31 

Pliny the Elder, 123, 179 

Pliny the Younger, letter to Trajan, 
127 ; literary notice, 179 

Po, river, 1 

Pol'y carp, Church father, 131 

Pompeii (pom pa'ye) destroyed, 
123 n. 1 

Pompey, Gnae'us (the Great), given 
command against the pirates, 90 ; 
given charge of war against Mith- 
radates, 91 ; conquers Syria, 91 ; 
takes Jerusalem, 91 ; his triumph, 
92 ; enters the First Triumvirate, 
93, 94 ; rivalry between him and 
Caesar, 96 ; his death, 97 

Pompey, Gnaeus, son of the preced- 
ing, 98 n. 1 

Pompey, Sextus, 98 n. 1 

Pom po'ni us, 181 

Pontifex Maximus, 15 

Pontiffs, College of, 15 

Pontus, state in Asia Minor, 73 

Popes. See Papacy 

Posilipo (p5 se le'po), grotto, 171 

Praetorian guard, created by Augus- 
tus, 117; disbanded by Septimius 
Severus, 135 

Prae'tors, original title of the con- 
suls, 24 ; creation of the office, 36 

Pre'fec tures, the subdivisions of the 
later Roman Empire, 141 n. 1 

Prin'cefis, the title, 108 

Provinces, first Roman, 52, 53 ; gov- 
ernment of, reformed by Augustus, 
109 ; condition of, under the An- 
tonines, 132 

Public lands, Roman, how acquired 
and how administered, y^ '■> at the 
time of the Gracchi, 74 

Tublilian Law, 36 n. 2 

Punic War, First, 46-52 ; Second, 
56-61 ; Third, 67-69 

Pydma, battle of, 63 

Pyrrhus (pir'iis), takes command of 
the Tarentines, 42 ; campaigns in 
Italy and Sicily, 42 ; defeated at 
Beneventum, 42 



240 



INDEX 



Quinqueremes (kwm'kweremz), 49 
n. 1 ; first fleet of, built by the 
Romans, 49 

Radagaisus (rad a ga/sus), 154 n. 1 
Reg'u lus, A tin us, Roman general, 

Re'mus, 21 

Rimini (re'me ne), 223 
Roderic, Visigothic king, 219 
Roman colonies. See Colonies 
Roman Empire, definitely established 
by Augustus, 106-109; greatest ex- 
tent under Trajan, 127 ; public sale 
of, 134; its final division, 152; the 
Eastern, 1 53 ; fall of the, in the 
West, 161; causes of failure, 162; 
import of its downfall, 164; the 
Empire in the East, 212-214; re- 
stored in the West by Charles the 
Great, 224 
Roman law, 180-182 ; revival of, 210 
Roman Peace (Pax Romano), 43 ; es- 
tablished in Gaul, 95 
Roman roads, construction begun, 

41 ; their extension, 170 n. 1 
Romance languages, 208 
Romance nations, origin, 207 
Rome, location, 6 ; early society and 
government, 8-1 2 ; under the kings, 
17-23; under the Tarquins, 17; 
legends of, 21-23; sacked by the 
Gauls, 34 ; its rebuilding, 35 ; effect 
upon, of conquest of the East, 64 ; 
destroyed by the Great Fire, 120; 
last triumph at, 153; ransom of, by 
Alaric, 154 ; sacked by Alaric, 155 ; 
sacked by the Vandals, 160 
Rom'u lus, king of Rome, 17, 21 
Romulus Augustus, last emperor of 

the West, 161 
Rubicon, river, crossed by Caesar, 97 
Ru ma'ni a, 126 n. 1 

Sabbath, adopted as day of rest by 

Constantine, 146 
Sabines (sa'blnz), 21 
Sacred games among the Romans, 

16 
Sagun'tum taken by Hannibal, 55 
St. Anthony, 200 
St. Augustine, mission to Britain, 

198 
St. Augustine, Aurelius, 180 



St. Benedict, his Rule, 200 

St. Boniface (bon'i fas), 198, 199 

St. Columba, 198 

St. Jerome (je rom'), 180 

St. Patrick, 198 

St. Peter, martyr at Rome, 220; his 
primacy, 203 

Sallust, historian, 178 

S'a 15'na, 143 

Samnite wars, 40 

Sar'a cens. See Mohammedanism 

Sardinia, with Corsica, made a Ro- 
man province, 53 

Sat urnd'li a, 16 

Scipio (sip'i-o), Publius Cornelius 
( Africanus Major), defeats Hannibal 
at Zama, 60 

Scipio, Publius Cornelius ^Emilia- 
nus (Africanus Minor), at siege of 
Carthage, 68, 69 ; at siege of 
Numantia, 70 

Se ja'nus, 117 

Senate, Roman, under the kings, 10 ; 
power restored by Sulla, 87 ; num- 
ber reduced to six hundred by 
Augustus, 108 ; Tiberius confers 
upon, right to elect magistrates, 
116; admission to, of Gauls, 119 

Sen'e ca, moralist, Nero's tutor, 119,' 
his teachings, 179 

Serfdom, mediaeval, beginnings of, 
142 n. 1 

Servile War, First, 72 ; Second, 

73 n - 2 
Servius Tullius, builds walls of Rome, 

17 ; his reforms, 18-20 

Seven Hills, the, 7, 17 

Se ve'rus, Sep tim'i us, Roman em- 
peror, reign, 135 

Seville (sev'il), 219 

Sib'yl line Books, 1 5 ; number of 
keepers raised to ten, 35; prophecy 
in, 53 ; burned, 86 

Sicily, relation to Roman history, 2 ; 
at the beginning of the First Punic 
War, 48; conquest of, by the 
Romans, 49 ; becomes a Roman 
province, 52 ; First Servile War in, 
72 ; Second Servile War in, 73 n. 2 

Slavery, in early Rome, 9 ; condition 
of slaves in Sicily, 72; general 
statements respecting, 187-189 

Social War, 79 ; comments upon re- 
sults, 81 



INDEX 



241 



Soissons (swa son 7 ), battle of, 193 
Spain becomes Romanized, 70 ; con- 
quered by the Saracens, 219 
Spar'ta cus, leader of gladiators, 87 
Stephen II, Pope, 223 
Stil'i eho, Vandal general, 153, 154 
Sublician (sub lish'an) Bridge, 22 
Suetonius (swe to'ni us), biographer, 

178 

Suf fe'tes, 46 

Sulla, Lucius Cornelius, in Jugurthine 
War, 78 ; given command against 
Mithradates, 84, 85 ; marches upon 
Rome, 85; war between him and 
the Marian party, 86 ; his proscrip- 
tions, 86 ; made dictator, 87 ; his 
abdication and death, 87 

Sulpician (sul pish'an) Laws, 85 n. 1 

Sulpicius (sul pish'i us), tribune, 85 n. 1 

Sy a'gri us, Roman governor, 193 . 

Syracuse, forms alliance with Car- 
thage, 58 ; fall of, 59 

Syria made a Roman province, 91 

Tacitus, historian, 179 

Taras. See Tarentum 

Tarentum, war with Rome, 41 ; char- 
acter of inhabitants, 41 

Tar quin'i us Priscus, king of Rome, 1 7 

Tarquinius Superbus, king of Rome, 
17 ; his expulsion, 20 

Te lem'a chus, monk, 490 

Ter'ence, dramatist, 175 

Teutoburg (toi't5 boorG) Wood, scene 
of defeat of Varus, no 

Teutons (tu'tonz). See Barbarians 

Thap'sus, battle of, 97 

Theaters, Roman, construction of, 
169; entertainments of, 183 

The od'o ric, king of the Ostrogoths, 

Theodosius (the o do'shi us) I (the 
Great), emperor, reduces Goths to 
submission, 151 ; the destroyer of 
paganism, 151; orders massacre at 
Thessalonica, 152 ; bows to Bishop 
Ambrose, 152; divides the Empire, 

I5 2 
Ther'mae, Roman, 171 
Thes sa lo ni'ca, massacre at, 152 
Tiber, river, 3 
TI be'ri us, Roman emperor, reign, 

116, 117 
Ti'bur, 173 



Ti efnus, battle of the, 57 n. 1 
Titus, Roman emperor, at siege of 

Jerusalem, 122; reign, 122, 123 
Tivoli (te'vo le). See Tibur 
Tours (toor), battle of, 219 
Trajan, Roman emperor, reign, 125- 

127 
Tras i me'nus, lake, battle at, 57 n. 1 
Tre'bi a, battle of the, 57 n. 1 
Tribes, as divisions of the Roman 

community, 10; the four Servian, 

18, 19; maximum number, 19 n. 2 
Tribunes, military, with consular 

power, creation of office, 32 ; 

abolished, 35 
Tribunes, plebeian, first, 26 ; number, 

26 ; duties, 26 ; their right of aid, 

27 ; sacrosanct character, 27 ; ac- 
quire the right to sit within the 

. Senate hall, 32 ; powers absorbed 

by Augustus, 108 
Triumph, last, at Rome, 153 
Triumvirate, First, 430 ; Second, 101 
Truceless War, the, 54 
Tus'cu lum, 38 n. 1 
Twelve Tables, the, 28-30 
Tyne (tin), the, 128 
Tyr rhe'ni an Sea, 1 

UFA las, apostle of the Goths, .196 
UTpi an, jurist, 181 
Um'bri a, 1 

Va'lens, Roman emperor, 150 

Val en tin'i an I, Roman emperor 
150 n. 1 

Va le'ri an, Roman emperor, 136 n. 3 

Va le'ri an Law, 2 5 

Valerio-Horatian Laws, 31 

Va le'ri us, Lucius (lu'shi us), consul, 31 

Valerius, Publius, consul, 25 

Vandals, in Spain, 157; in Africa, 
157; sack Rome, 160; persecute 
African Catholics, 192 ; kingdom 
destroyed by Justinian, 193 

Varro, Gaius Terentius (te ren'shi us), 
consul, 57 

Varus, Quin til'i us, defeated by Ar- 
minius, no 

Veii (ve'yl), siege and capture of, 33, 38 

Ven'e ti, the, 1 59 

Venetia (vene'shia), 51 

Venice, its beginnings, 159 

Ver eel'lae, battle at, 79 



242 



INDEX 



Ver'gil, 175, 176 

Ver'res, propraetor, his scandalous 

misgovernment of Sicily, 88 ; his 

prosecution by Cicero, 88, 89 
Vespasian (ves pa'zhi an), Flavius, 

Roman emperor, reign, 121 
Vesta, worship of, at Rome, 14 
Vi'a. sE mil'i <?, 170 n. 1; Ap'pi a, 

41, 170 n. 1; Cas'sia, 170 n. 1; 

Flamiri 7 a, 170 n. 1 
Villas, Roman, 173 
Vin do b5'na, 132 
Vis'i goths, cross the Danube, 1 50 ; 

reduced to submission by Theo- 

dosius, 151; invade Italy, 153; 

second invasion, 155; after sack 



of Rome, 156, 157 ; establish king- 
dom in Spain, 192 ; kingdom de- 
stroyed by the Saracens, 219 
VI tel'li us, Roman emperor, 121 
Volscians (vol'shanz), border wars 
with Rome, 27 

Winfrid. See St. Boniface 
Woman, social position of, at Rome, 
183 

Yoke, symbol of submission, 28 n. 1 

Za'ma, battle at, 60 

Ze'la, battle at, 97 

Ze no'bi a, queen of Palmyra, 37 n. 2 



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